Konoha's Cherry Blossom
by fdty
Summary: Sakura has a mission. Go in, pretend to be one of the Akatsuki--then eliminate them. This was assigned for her and her closest friends-including Sasuke. But what happens when she falls in love again and consequences are servere?
1. The News

It was another beautiful day in the village of Kohona, and everyone was happy-

"Ino, you pig!!"

Well, almost everyone.

Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzamaki were on a mission to try and steal Kakashi's perverted book. They were so close, and then Ino Yamanaka had revealed Sakura's hiding place. Well, of course, Sakura wasn't all that happy about Ino's actions.

"Calm down, Billboard Brow!" Ino said with a smirk. "I have a message for you from Lady Tsunade." She handed the pink haired kuniochi a scroll. Sakura took the scroll, not really in any hurry to read it. By this time, Naruto was sort of jogging over to Sakura to see what the message said from the Hokage.

He was sixteen and a half, and he was not the same hyperactive knucklehead he used to be four years ago when they were just kids. He was stronger, somewhat smarter, and he didn't goof off as much (except when it was just his friends). Kakashi's, feeling that his ex-students were no longer after his _precious_ book of perverted perviness, appeared in a _poof_ next to Naruto. For he, too, was curious of the contents of the scroll. Sakura, annoyed that people were invading her personal bubble, opened the pearl white scroll sent by her master, and held it at an angle so only she could read it.

It stated the worst news she could bear. Sakura quickly role the back up, and started running home. "Hey, Sakura, what'd it say?" Naruto yelled after her. But she didn't hear him. She was too deep into her own thoughts, that she didn't even notice anything around her.

Sakura got home subconsciously. Sakura burst through the door of her own home, not even caring that she didn't close it behind her. The moment that she was in the privacy of her own room, she fell to her knees and doubled over, clutching her throbbing head.

_Maybe I read it wrong!_

With shaking hands, Sakura reread the scroll more than once, desperately hoping that it would be something else. But it said what it said. And Sakura couldn't change that. The scroll read:

_Dear Sakura Haruno,_

_I'm sorry to inform you that your parents were attacked while on their vacation. But the mystery killer didn't stop with them. He went ahead and killed the rest of the Haruno clan. I understand that you must be feeling sadness like never before. You may come visit me any time for, tea and we'll talk._

_I'm here for you,_

_Lady Tsunade_

At first, the letter surprised Sakura. Lady Tsunade never told people that she was "there for them" when they were upset. Then again, the Hokage herself personally trained Sakura, and the two have come to know each other very well. She was like a role model for Sakura, because she was the only kuniochi that Sakura could really look up to.

The girl looked at the scroll with hatred, and disgust. She couldn't begin to understand why someone would destroy her clan. They weren't too well known, like the Uchiha's, or the Hyuga's. Sakura became so angry, that she threw the scroll at the wall opposite her with all the strength she could muster. When it hit the wall, the wooden peg that held it together snapped into pieces, and the paper part of the scroll sprawled out onto the floor. The teenage ninja sat up.

_So, nobody else knows about this?_

Sakura knew for a fact, that if the Hokage wrote certain letters out to people that the council normally did for her, then the information was top secret. The pink haired kuniochi was somewhat happy that no one else knew. To be honest, she really didn't want others to know about the tragedy of her clan. And the last thing she needed was for everyone to feel sorry for her.

_I'm not going to cry over this. My family's death can only make me stronger!_

_Cha! That's right! _The inner-Sakura shouted._ No one can bring us down!_

Sakura stood. It's not that she wasn't saddened by what happened to her family. She actually couldn't feel any worse. But she wasn't going to be a crybaby over the whole thing.

The young ninja walked up a flight of stairs in her house, leading to a large observation area on the top of her roof.

She stood on the very edge of the roof, looking out at different parts of the village visible to the naked eye from where she was standing. She could parents showing their kids around the village, taking them to different shops, and treating them to small take-out restaurants.

Then Sakura's gaze turned to the Hokage faces. She studied each face carefully, taking in every detail that she noticed. Then she came to the Third's face. She remembered how he died fighting Orochimaru, protecting the village.

One of the village jounin appeared in a puff of smoke behind her. Sakura didn't bother turn around to see who it was. She honestly didn't care.

"The Hokage would like to speak to you right away," he said. The kuniochi simply nodded, implying that she heard him. The messenger disappeared in a puff of smoke.

_Great,_ she thought._ Now what does she want?_ And with, she, too, disappeared.


	2. Mission

Sakura reappeared in the Hokage's office, and she noticed that she was not alone. Others who had arrived were Naruto, Hinata, Ino, Shikamaru, and Lee. The Hokage herself sat in front of them.

"You're late Sakura," Lady Tsunade said in a flat voice. Sakura simply shrugged.

"I got the message late." She looked at the other ninja, and then Ino asked the same thing that Sakura was wondering. "What's going on? Why did you call us hear?"

"Well, I guess I'd better get right to the point, then." Everyone else was silent.  
"The Akuktsuki are on the move. And I've heard from a very reliable source that they're planning an attack on our village. For the past few weeks, some of their members have already tried to weaken the village by killing some of the clans that live here." Sakura's eyes widened, and she mentally gasped. The Inner-Sakura spoke up.

You mean it's THEIR fault that my family's dead?! I'll kill them!!!!

Lady Tsunade was still talking. "What I want you all to do is find the Akuktsuki and kill them." Shikamaru sighed. "Ugh, this is going to be such a drag! And it'll probably become a bit troublesome, too." He sounded bored with the whole thing.

"Indeed it will, Shikamaru. Now I wish to speak with Sakura. Alone!" she said firmly when no one moved. And with that, everyone else scrambled out of the room.

After a few minutes, Sakura broke the silence. "So, the Akutsuki killed my clan, huh?" The female Hokage nodded. "Then in the letter, why did you say 'mystery killer' if you knew?" Tsunade looked at Sakura.

"Because I only figured it out after Ino sent the letter. But Sakura, don't ever forget that you're not alone. You've got friends to talk to. And watch yourself. These guys are stronger than ever." She stood up suddenly, walked over to the door, and opened it sharply. The five other ninja toppled into the room, one on top of the other. Sakura gave them a dirty look. "What all did you guys hear?" she asked suspiciously.

"We couldn't, and I would greatly appreciate it if you would all GET OFF OF ME!" Naruto yelled from the bottom of the pile, who was finding it very hard to breathe with other people on top of him. Once everyone was back on their feet, Tsunade gave them more details on the A-ranked mission.

"Neji and Sasuke will be joining you. You'll meet up with them on your way to the Akutsuki Headquarters. Probably on your second or third day out, it depends on how things go. I've got a map of were the headquarters might be located, and I think you can figure out what you want to do from there. Now normally, I wouldn't give this kind of a mission to jounin in their first year, but some of you have got a thing against the Akutsuki, so this is your mission." Then she explained to them about the abilities of the Akutsuki members that they were most likely to face, some of which the young ninja have heard of, but not faced.

Wow, I didn't think that there would be this many people in the Akutsuki. This is going to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.

"Okay, but if you want us to kill ALL of them, why aren't you having any more ninja help us out?" Lee asked. "I mean, why not have Tenten, Chougi, or the Sand Nin come along. Didn't Gaara have trouble with them before? It just seems that we should have more people on this mission." Naruto smirked at this.

"What's the mater, Lee? Scared?"

"What did you just say!? I am not scared! How dare you say such a thing! You watch, Naruto! I will prove to you just how superior I truly am!" everyone looked at Lee, a bit annoyed.

Great, Shikamaru thought. The mission hasn't even started, and Naruto's already getting someone pissed off.

"Now I want all of you to get a god night sleep. You'll be leaving at dawn. Good luck!" Everyone nodded and disappeared in a small puff of smoke, anxious for the next day to arrive.


	3. The Group Takes Off

By the time that everyone was walking out of the village, the sun was just beginning to rise, just like Lady Tsunade had planned for them. Naruto and Shikamaru were made leaders of the mission because A) Shikamaru had an extremely high IQ, and B) Naruto had faced the Akutsuki before, and still knew what they were like better than anyone else.

By this time, the sun was fully up and it was almost noon. "Slow down, Lee!" Shikamaru shouted from behind. "Were stopping for a moment." Lee turned his head.

"Why stop now? – Ugh!" Lee hadn't been watching where he was going, and crashed into a tree. Hard. He slid down the tree trunk and caught himself on a large branch. Naruto was standing at the bottom of the large tree, laughing.

"Hahaha! Hey, you okay, bushy-brows?! Hahahaha!"

Lee jumped down from where he was at, and sat down against the trunk of the tree. "Hey, Naruto. I see stars. Pretty stars!" he said with a dazed look on his face. Ino walked up to Lee and slapped him on the cheek. "Will you two stop goofing off? We're eating lunch now." At the word 'lunch', the two male ninja ran over to where the food was before Ino could even turn around. "Boys!" she scowled.

They all ate their lunches in silence, except Naruto, who had somewhatinhaled his Ramen In A Cup. After everyone was finished eating, or in Naruto's case, inhaling, they set off again, with Hinata using her Byakugan to check their surroundings. It was going to be a little difficult trying to find where the headquarters might be this time. The previous one had caved in during a battle Sakura had with the emotionless Sand Village traitor, Sasori. Hinata tapped Sakura on the shoulder.

"Isn't this exciting, Sakura? After 19 long months, we get to see Neji and Sasuke again!" Neji Hyuga and Sasuke Uchiha had left over a year and a half ago for a mission to strengthen alliances between far away nations and large villages. They left on Sakura's 18th birthday, and she hasn't heard from them since. Sure, they would send Lady Tsunade mission reports every once and a while, and the Hokage would tell Sakura bits and pieces about how their mission was gong so far, but that was pretty much it.

"I mean," Hinata continued, "even though Neji's my cousin and all, he is like a big brother to me. And I know that he will always be there for me. And you must be thrilled to see Sasuke, again!" Hinata almost _never_ stuttered around her closest friends anymore, except when she was really nervous.

"I don't know. I mean, it'll be cool to see Neji again, that's for sure. But I'm not too sure about Sasuke. Ever since we were kids, he has always been kind of rude to me, and always acted like he never cared. Sasuke Uchiha, well I am pretty sure that he hates me, so why should I be happy to see him?" Sakura looked at Hinata, searching her facial expression for some kind of an answer.

"Well," Hinata was whispering now, and Sakura had to strain her ears a bit to hear what she was saying. "Well, Neji and I have been secretly keeping in touch with each other. And in one of his letters, he said that for some reason, Sasuke would wake up at night and just stare at something in his hand, with some sadness in his eyes. So, one day, while traveling to a village, he used his Byakugan and checked Sasuke's belongings and in his pants pocket, he saw a recent candid picture of you smiling. And so he and I came to a small conclusion that Sasuke might have a thing for you."

She couldn't believe it. Could it be? Sakura never thought it possible. That Sasuke, the same Sasuke that never showed any interest in her before, actually missed her? But why? Did she do something before he left that would make him like her? Well, she HAD stopped trailing him when they had gotten a bit older. But then if that were it, wouldn't he be happy that she wasn't his number one fan girl anymore?

_It just doesn't make any sense at all…_

"Sakura, didn't you hear me?" Shikamaru called from behind her. "I said that we're stopping here for the night!" The girl turned a deep red that put her beautiful pink hair to shame.

After about twenty minutes, everyone's tent was set up, in a circle in a small opening under the orange, setting sun. All of a sudden, Hinata collapsed, still conscious. Naruto rushed over to her.

"Hinata, what's wrong? Are you okay?" he asked, with a worried look on his face.

Hinata tried to get herself back to a standing position, but started to fall again, and Naruto steadied her by placing her hands on her waist. And of course, this made her blush, deeply. Ino and Shikamaru walked over to the female Hyuga and helped her over to a rock near the center of the circle of tents, with Naruto, Lee, and Sakura following.

"I-I'm alright, N-Naruto," Hinata said, seeing Naruto's worried expression. She gave him a reassuring smile, and he very slightly smiled back, blushing a little less, only for her to see. Lee gave out a big yawn.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, bet I'm off to bed. G'night!" Everyone else agreed, heading off to his or her tents, except Sakura.

"Sakura," Ino started, "aren't you going to get some rest? We've been at it since dawn!" Sakura planted herself down on the rock that Hinata had just got up from. She sighed.

"A ninja waits until the time is right. When the enemy sleeps and drops his guard. When his weapons lie forgotten in the stillness of the night. That is the moment for a ninja to strike." She looked at everyone, waiting for some kind of a reply. Shikamaru spoke up after what seemed like forever.

"She's right. Someone could attack us at any given chance, and most of those chances are in the dead of night. When we're asleep. Sakura, you can take watch until around, say, midnight, if you want. Then, wake me up so you can get at least some sleep. We'll do this routine every night, giving everyone equal shifts." The laziest of the ninja looked at his closest friends, as if daring them to argue. When no one did, he then walked off to his tent. Everyone else also went to his or her tents, saying "goodnight" to Sakura, and wishing her some good luck, after a long day (except for Lee, who gave her a bone-crushing hug).

For what seemed like hours, Sakura sat their on the same rock, on full alert. Sakura had never been to good at telling time without a clock, so she had no idea what time it was. But it really didn't matter to her. This was probably the only time she'll have to herself for a while. Sakura had thought about a lot of things while on watch. Like how they were going to kill the Akatsuki. Should they go in as spies, or surprise them when they don't realize it, and give it their all? Then there was the thought of someone dying on the mission. Sakura knew that someone would have to die. They were going up against S-class criminals in the Bingo Book. She thought about what would the others do if SHE died. Would they think that she just wasn't strong enough to survive, or that she died with true honor as one of the strongest kuniochi that they had ever known? Then there was one more thing that she gave a lot of thought into. Sasuke. Did he really have feelings for her? She had thought about this earlier, but she just couldn't get her mind off of the subject. Sakura had never known Sasuke to show any feelings except hatred towards Itatchi. The only time she had ever seen him smile was when he was really hurting someone.

_Well,_ she thought to herself, _I guess we will have to wait and see if he's really changed enough to feel any feelings for someone._

A hand suddenly rested on her shoulder. The kuniochi spun around with kunai in both hands, ready to hurt the unwelcome visitor, only to find that it was Shikamaru. "Is it time to switch?" The male sighed.

"No, but I had trouble sleeping, so I'm letting you off a bit early. Is that alright with you?" Sakura nodded

"Did anything happen on your shift?" he asked with some boredom in his voice.

Sakura shook her head no. "No. it was somewhat… peaceful." The girl went to her tent, laid down, and fell immediately to sleep.


	4. Surprise! The Enemy and the Friend

**Authors Note: First off, it is very easy to see that I DO NOT OWN NARUTO! (And this applies to every story I write) **

**Okay, yes, the last chapter was supossed to have an ambush, but I forgot that it was in THIS CHAPTER! oops. So, um, sorry for the confusion and let down. And I promise you, the chapters will get better as they come. I wrote the first ones a while ago before I learned how to really write. I greatly appreciate the wonderful reviews! You guys that are reading this--YOU ROCK!!! **

**Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

**

The next morning, after everyone was packed up and ready to go, the group set off once more. After a few hours of nonstop traveling, the ninja had to stop and take a moment to find out where they were on the map, and where the Akatsuki Headquarters could possibly be, because Tsunade didn't write down the possible places that it could be located.

While they were looking at the map, Hinata gasped, and turned to look at some trees behind her, fear in her Byakugan eyes. Everyone else looked around, also, and realized what she was looking at.

Eight Akatsuki members had found them. Naruto looked at them carefully.

"Hmpf. Don't recon to have seen you all before. You all new to the Akatsuki, or something?"

The tallest of the unwelcome visitors, which Naruto took to be the leader of the small group, stepped forward. "That's because Leader uses us for _special_ occasions!" The leader of the small Akatsuki group jumped at Naruto, a kunai in his hand. Naruto blocked the attack with on of his own kunai, and the battle began.

Everyone was in a one-on-one battle with someone, with two remaining enemies watching from the sidelines.

Sakura was fighting a tall man, with spiky hair that was faint silver with black highlights in it. The man also had HUGE muscles that she could just barely make out even with the cloak drape over his body.

That cloak. Black with red clouds that had thin, a white lining to them. How she hated the look of that particular cloak. The last time Sakura had seen that design was when she had fought him.

Itatchi Uchiha.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FLASHBACK!

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"Sakura, what ever you do, don't look into the Sharingan eyes! You don't want to get caught in his Gen Jutsu!" Naruto shouted to her.

_Sasuke has only been gone for a week now, and already his brother's showing his ugly face in the village!_

"I'm sorry, but did I just hear you say that I had an 'ugly face'?" he said with a small smirk on his face.

_Oh, crap! I'm caught!_

"Yes," he whispered, "you are." All of a sudden, Sakura was tied in ropes that were as tough as chains, and she couldn't break free.

"Don't you get it, Sakura? I _want_ you. And I'm not going to let my excuse of a brother stop that from happening." Itatchi appeared behind the girl and held her possessively. Sakura shuddered from the fear of him being so close, let alone hold in such a way.

"Aw, now don't be like that." He was now whispering into her left ear.

_This man,_ she thought,_ this isn't the same emotionless man that I've heard about._

Then he bit her neck. And as suddenly as they had came, the ropes around her were as good as gone, and when she saw the older Uchiha thrown back a ways, she realized that Naruto had gotten her out of the Gen Jutsu.

Sakura never told anyone about what went on between her and Itatchi. And she never wanted to.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------END FLASHBACK!!

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By this time, each of the Kohona ninja were about a mile apart from each other, which was the Akatsuki's plan in the first place.

The Akatsuki man charged at Sakura with incredible speed, a kunai in each hand. She jumped back, away from his reach, and punched him in the gut. Well, knowing HER strength, he was sent back about a couple hundred yards. When she got her chance, Sakura gathered a little chakra in her hand, and slammed it to the ground, causing a massive quake going towards the big man.

He jumped up and out of the way of the crumbling earth; he threw some needles at her. Some with bells, and some without. Sakura knew this trick all too well, because she had seen it in the Chuunin Exams, when Shikamaru had faced on of the Sound ninja in the preliminaries. It wasn't too hard to dodge all of the needles, though. Since Sakura was a medical ninja, she was trained to dodge every attack, no matter what. If the medical ninja is injured, who will heal everyone else? She remembered this from her training with Lady Tsunade.

Out of nowhere, another kunai came at Sakura, and hit her in the shoulder. She turned around to find another Akatsuki in the fight, deciding to help his partner. By the looks of it, this new guy was probably just as strong as the one Sakura was already fighting.

_All right, _her Inner shouted out,_ it's time to end this battle!_

Sakura performed some hand signs, and shout her right arm out in front of her. As the sound of a thousand chirping birds came, chakra throughout her body charged up at the base of Sakura's hand, giving off a blue, electrical glow.

When the Chidori was ready, the kuniochi charged at her opponents screaming as she went. One of them quickly got out of the way, while the other was too paralyzed with fear to even move. She hit him square in the chest, sending dark blood everywhere, while the other man watched in horror.

When the man fell, dead from the attack, his partner charged at her, and the pink haired kuniochi jumped back out of the way.

She couldn't take much more of this; the Chidori had used way too much of her chakra!

"I hope you're ready to die, little girl!" as he raised his katana, he was struck in the shoulder by a few shuriken. Then, a tall boy with raven hair appeared in front of Sakura and hit the enemy so hard, that he flew backwards about 200 yards.

The raven-haired boy turned his head and looked at Sakura with onyx eyes and smirked.

"Hello…Sakura."

Sakura let out a small gasp.

"Sasuke!"


	5. Reunion

The living enemy was up once more. Apparently, he wasn't done yet. Yet.

"So, you're Itatchi's little brother, eh?" He chuckled aloud. "Pathetic. Simply pathetic."

Sasuke was now facing the muscular man. He had his head bent down, which cast a dark shadow over his eyes, which gave him an intimidating look. Then he had a sinister smile over his slightly pale face.

"Well, incase you haven't noticed, I'm not so little!"

This time, it was Sasuke creating the Chidori. Sakura knew that it wouldn't take such a toll on him, like it did to her. She knew this because he'd been able to to it ever since they were just kids. Compared to Sakura's, the Uchiha's Chidori was much brighter, louder, and had so much more chakra than hers. Now, this man was also paralyzed by fear of the Chidori. After seeing what it had done to his partner, he couldn't imagine the outcome of the battle. He started to turn and run away, but was too slow. Sasuke ran at the Akatsuki with full speed, and hit him straight in the heart. There was a bright blue light, mixed with a red liquid that Sakura knew was blood.

When Sasuke was finished with the attack, he stood over a bloody body that had a whole where the heart should have been. As he started back towards Sakura, she noticed something: the hand he used for the Chidori was drenched in blood. Sakura looked at her own hand; it only had some blood on it, because she couldn't get very far into the body. But Sasuke, man, he is so much stronger now! The last time Sakura had seen his Chidori, it wasn't nearly as powerful as it was just now!

Sakura clenched her fists tightly, looking at the ground. Over the time that Sasuke was gone, she had tried so hard to become stronger, and shorten the range between their limits of power. She had been training so hard; she would train for times a day until she stared to bleed from all of the pressure she would put on herself. Sakura had learned a lot from the Hokage about healing and fighting, thinking that it would be enough to prove to someone, anyone that she had gotten stronger. But she was wrong. It would never be enough.

_Now I get it_, she thought._ You can never impress someone who never cared._

"Sakura, what's wrong?" There was almost no emotion in his voice. The only one she could recognize was boredom. Sakura noticed that she had started crying. She immediately stopped, but dept her head down. She reached into her front pocket, and pulled out a cloth that she usually used to clean up wounds.

Sakura stood up and started whipping the large amounts of blood off the boy's hands. "It's okay, Sakura, I can clean it off my self," he said quietly. He didn't dare admit it to anyone, but for some odd reason, he loved the feel of her touch. This was a new feeling for him, and he didn't really know how to describe it. Caring? Love, maybe?

_A perverted lust? _His Inner whispered deviously.

_Oh, god!_ He thought to himself. _Please don't let it be something like that!_ He quickly shook that thought out of his head, and shoved his Inner into a small box with only one, small air hole. "Uh, Sakura, where exactly are Naruto and the other ninja that Tsunade sent on this mission?" The pink-haired kuniochi thought for a moment.

"Not sure. But, to be on the safe side, we should probably go back to the spot where the Akatsuki guys had stopped us. That's most likely where the others might be waiting; I assume that they will have already finished their battles as well." The two shinobi silently started walking back to where their friends might be waiting.

_It's been practically two years since we've seen each other, and she isn't saying anything at all,_ he thought to himself. Sasuke decided to try and start a conversation with her, to "make the time go by".

"Sakura, I noticed that you can make an almost perfect Chidori," he said flatly.

Sakura glanced at him as her Inner started punching the air in frustration. _ALMOST?!? What do you mean 'almost perfect'? That was right on the target!_ Sakura decided to ignore her Inner's comments.

"Yeah, well, I had seen you do it enough times to where I can sort of memorize the hand signs, so I decided to try it out for myself."

"And this was your first try, I take it?" She nodded slightly. "And to think you don't even have the Sharingan to copy it with. I'm impressed, Sakura."

Sakura couldn't believe it. She impressed _him_?! Sakura thought for a moment. _Maybe Hinata was right. Maybe Sasuke does care._

Once they returned to the place where they had been discovered by the Akatsuki, everyone else was already there. Ino was healing some wounds on Shikamaru, Naruto was holding a bruised Hinata very, very closely, and Lee was trying to talk to Neji, who was keeping a very close eye on Naruto and Hinata. Hinata spotted Sakura, and ran over to here quickly, which bummed a blonde quit a bit.

"Sakura, Neji's back!" Then she noticed Sasuke was coming up behind Sakura. "But I guess you already figured that out, huh?" she whispered, smiling. Hinata gave a small and shy wave to Sasuke, who politely nodded back, not smiling though. The Uchiha walked off to go talk to Naruto, who seemed delighted to see on of his good friends. Hinata stood beside her pink-haired friend and watched Sasuke and Naruto talk.

"Wow, Sasuke sure has changed! He doesn't look as mean as he used to, does he?" Sakura gave her a 'pfft!' and shook her head in disbelief.

"Hinata, please. It's got to be an act! Think about it; it's Sasuke! His true nature is to be cold, heartless, and uncaring. He will never change." Sakura looked over at Ino and Shikamaru to see them arguing over something.

"I'm telling you, we're here!" she said as-a-matter-of-factly, pointing her index finger somewhere on the map.

"And _I'm _telling_ you,_ we are right about here!" He had his index finger somewhere else on the map, far from where Ino had her finger.

"C'mon, Shikamaru! You know darn well that I'm right!

"Oh yeah?!"

"Yeah!" The two ninja were staring daggers into each other, and you cold really see the flames in their eyes. Neji walked over to them and looked at the map for a few minutes, then at Ino and Shikamaru.

"You need a new map," he said blankly. "This map was drawn about fifty or so years ago. I'd be a good idea to go and get a map that's up to date." Hinata decided to speak up to the rest of the group.

"Well where are we supposed to get one? We've been in the wilderness ever since we left the village to go on this mission." Even though she didn't stutter, she still sounded very shy when she talked to some people. Sasuke stepped in the conversation, with no emotion in his voice.

"There's a small town about five to eight miles west of here. You'll be able to get a new map there," he said.

Around an hour later, they were almost to the town that Sasuke had told them about earlier. Neji jumped over to sakura, seeing that Hinata was giggling at something that Naruto had said. "Hey," he whispered, "is there something going on between Naruto and my cousin?" Sakura looked over at them.

"I guess after all this time Naruto's finally feeling what Hinata's felt for him ever since we were kids at the Academy. Why are you so concerned about it?" she asked him. The male Hyuga looked at Sakura.

"You know how Hinata's vulnerable- letting people push her around and stuff? I just don't want to see her get hurt again. And I keep getting this feeling that if she gets too close, Naruto is going to break her heart, or something." Sakura gave a small chuckle, and looked at Neji.

"You've been gone too long. Did Hinata tell you that she was attacked, just not too long ago?" Neji shook his head 'no'. "Well, about a few months ago, some Sound Ninja had snuck into the Leaf Village and started attacking people at random, for the heck of it, I think. One of them got a hold of Hinata to where she couldn't move at all, and tried to kill her. Naruto found her just in time. And right when the kunai was coming down, Naruto took the blade for her by pushing her out of the ninja's arms. Trust me, Neji, Naruto won't let anything happen to Hinata." From up ahead, Sasuke shouted,

"Okay, everyone, we're here!"


	6. Fireworks

Sasuke was defiantly right about the town being small. The group of ninja were standing at one edge of the town, and they could see the other edge quit clearly. But besides that, it was one of the most beautiful places Sakura had ever seen before. The buildings were painted with bright colors, with dazzling lanterns just starting to be lit by shop owners and restaurant waiters. The lanterns that were already lit contrasted beautifully against the darkening evening sky. It was like something you could only find in a painting, but twice as marvelous then you could ever imagine. And what made the town seem so much more alive was that there was music playing over the public speakers, and shoppers everywhere. Some in every store, probably. And for such a small town, there were a whole lot of shops, and probably three times as many restaurants.

Ino suddenly gasped, with a small smile on her face. "Oh, I love this song!"

A new song was now playing over the public speakers that spread throughout the town. It was the song "Broken" by Seether and Amy Lee. Shikamaru let a small smile slip onto his face as he recognized the song; he and Ino shyly glanced at each other. Naruto and Lee smirked.

"Oh, I get it," Naruto said. "This is the first song that the two of you danced to as a –" Ino's frustration got the better of her, and so she pounded Naruto before he could finis what he was saying.

"Get real, will you! Shikamaru and I are NOT a couple!" The blonde boy just smirked at her.

"Yeah, whatever!" Hinata looked in the bag that held all of her ninja weapons.

"While we're here, we should probably, uhm, get some more ninja tools, and stuff. What do you think, Naruto?" Naruto counted up his own ninja gear, as the others, as well. They all needed some more. "I think you're right, Hinata."

"Well then, how about this," Sasuke stated, "While you guys buy some more weapons, Shikamaru and I will go and find a new map that we can actually understand. And we could just stay here in the town for the night, as well." Shikamaru let out a heavy sigh.

"This mission is becoming more troublesome by each passing day. What a drag." Ten minutes later, Sasuke and Shikamaru were out looking for a map, while the others were searching for a store that sold ninja gear. They finally a shop with all of the things a ninja would need on a mission. There were kunai; shuriken; katana; exploding tags; scrolls teaching you how to perform basic jutsus; smoke grenades; pretty much everything a shinobi needs. Sakura started looking at kunai knives. They were in decent condition compared to what stores in other towns had. Then she looked at the price. It was outrageously expensive!

"I know what you're thinking, but let me tell you, this isn't any ordinary kunai knife! No, this one is very unique. Look closely at the tip of the knife. You see that little hole there? You can put things into the knife, such as poison, and even chakra; it will be completely undetectable because of a special seal that only the owner can control. Now, whatever you decide to put into the kunai, it will not leak out at random times; it will only come out through the tip when injected into another's body. This kind of kunai is only sold in this town, because it is made only in this town, now, luckily for you, we are having a sale today; buy ten for the price of five! What do you say?" Sakura thought for a moment, and I mean she really thought about it, and then she said, "I'll buy them!" While the clerk was scanning up all of the kunai knifes, Neji came up to Sakura.

"Sakura, where are Naruto and Hinata?" he asked her suspiciously. She looked a round the store to see that Naruto and Hinata had disappeared, and then she smirked. "I think I know what happened to them."

"Naruto, are you sure that the others won't get mad at us for not telling them where we are?" the female Hyuga asked nervously. The blonde boy looked in the bag of food that they had just ordered to make sure that they had gotten everything.

"If they do, I'll take the blame for it. This was my idea in the first place. Someone said earlier that there was going to be fireworks tonight, and pointed to the best place to watch them from, and I want to take you with me." He led her up a flight of stairs that led up to the roof of a small building. Hinata looked out and could see almost e entire town and beyond. The town looked four times better from above then it did when they had arrived. It showed an indescribable beauty that Hinata had never seen before. She sat down beside the blonde boy, whom she had always considered more than just a friend, and stared eating some of the food.

"I just hope that Neji doesn't get mad. He gets mad when I don't tell him where I am." Naruto set the ramen down quite roughly, and looked at Hinata sternly.

"Hinata, listen, because this has been bugging me for a long time. You're always letting people push you around, and you do whatever they tell you." He noticed that she was frightened a little, so he took her in his arms, and held her very close to him. "All I'm asking of you is to toughen up a little. I just don't want to see you get hurt from all of this, Hinata." Hinata was leaning into Naruto with her head of his shoulder, and he had his arms rapped around her. They sat like that for what seemed like forever to the two of them. Then a loud BOOM came, followed by a red light and faint cheering. The fireworks had begun. The blonde lay down on his back, bringing Hinata with him. So Naruto was lying on his back, Hinata resting her head on his chest with her arm over his chest, Naruto's right arm wound protectively around her waist.

"Wow," she whispered, "they're beautiful!" Naruto turned his gaze from the fireworks, to Hinata face.

"Yes," he said to her, "you most defiantly are, Hinata Hyuga." Hinata looked into Naruto's eyes, and he looked into her's. With his free hand, Naruto gently brought her face up to his, stopping when their lips were a centimeter apart.

_His smile,_ Hinata thought, _I've never seen him smile so sweetly before!_

"I don't give a crap for what your cousin has to say about this, about us, for that matter," he brought her face closer still, and their lips were just barely touching. "Hinata, I love you more than anything, and I'll love you more the next day then I did the last." He tilted his head slightly, and eliminated the space between their lips, and kissed her ever so passionately. Naruto surprised Hinata a little by not stopping with one, simple kiss. He kept kissing her. And for the first time, in a long time, Hinata did what she wanted to do, without have to ask for Neji's approval. So she gladly kissed him back. Naruto pulled her on top of him by the waist, not wanting to let her slip away from him. Hinata kept one hand caressed on his muscular chest, while letting the other hand stroke his slightly untidy, blonde hair. Naruto took the liberty to test her on what he had said earlier. He slowly shifted his hands from her waist, and started to slide them up her shirt. Hinata quickly broke the kiss and grabbed his hands, glad that they didn't get to far up. "Sorry, but I have my limits. Even with you, Naruto." He lifted her off of him and sat up, looked her straight in the eye, and said,

"Good. That means you passed my little test." They sat side by side for twenty minutes watching the fireworks. Naruto's hand was once again around Hinata's waist, while her head was resting on his shoulder. When the last BOOM ended, Naruto looked down at the young girl, and saw that she had fallen to sleep. Carefully, he got up, picked her up bridal style, her head now resting on his chest, with some of hair draped over cheek, and lightly brushed it away. As he started back down the stairs, he smiled, because of the peaceful smile painted on her face.


	7. As Feelings Arise

"Hey, Sakura." Sakura turned away from the fireworks to see a tall, raven-haired boy walking towards her, hands in his pockets. "Do you know where Naruto and Hinata are? We'll be sleeping just outside the town tonight, and we need to find them to let them know of the plans." Sakura turned back to the marvelous explosions.

"Ino's already looking for them. Neji offered, but with the way he feels about Naruto and Hinata being together, the rest of us thought it best for someone else to get them. It would have been Lee, but he's better at keeping Neji under control then anyone else." Sasuke stood by her, watching what she was watching.

"I see," he said. "So, how are things back in the Leaf Village?" She shrugged.

"Okay, I guess. All of the adults and parents in the village keep saying that the young ninja aren't training as hard as they should be, and are too weak to be called shinobi; the rest of us think that they show a lot of potential at such a young age. A few months ago, Naruto was the proctor of the second exam. He can sometimes be just like Anko, our proctor, when he talks about the "forest of death". Tsunade has been training me three times harder than ever before; every night, I come home with wounds that are almost done to the bone. One time she said that I should sign up for ANBU, because she thought that I had what it takes to be one. How did things go on the mission with Neji?" She only asked to be polite, but really deep inside, she was a little curious.

"Nothing special," he replied. "We got to visit some new places, meet more people, most of which are now our allies." Sakura nodded, not all too happy with his short answer. "Well, it's good to ave the two of you back with the rest of us."

"It's good to finally be back." The two of them stood there watching the magnificence of the fireworks. Sasuke felt Sakura shiver from the cold. (AN. He isn't touching her or anything, so I still don't know how he can feel that, but he does.) He took out a large blanket that he just so happened to have in the bag, unfolded it, and wrapped it around the two, forcing Sakura to move closer. He could tell that she was a bit cautious. He put his arm around her waist in a comforting manner, but she only got stiffer. "What's wrong? Are you afraid of me, Sakura?" Sakura tried her best not to look him in the eye.

"It's just… you don't seem to have changed at all; it's like you're the same emotionless Sasuke that I knew before you and Neji left for the mission. You just don't seem to care."

"I have changed, Sakura."

"Then while we're on this mission, I want you to prove that to me. Rove to me that you have really changed since you left." Sasuke smirked.

"Fine. But even though I have changed-and I know I have- there is still a side to me that you don't want to mess with. It's the whole, 'bite me, I bite you back' concept." Sakura decided to test that side of the Uchiha. She turned her head and lightly bit him on the shoulder. Not too hard, though. Sasuke was taken aback, but quickly made up his next move.

"You do realize that what I said was a metaphor, don't you?" Sakura nodded. "Well then, if that's the way you want to play, Sakura, then so be it." He turned to face her; the blanket fell to the ground. He dipped his head down and bit her on the neck, a little harder than she had bit him.

"Is that all you've got, Sasuke?" He smirked against her neck.

"Oh, I'm not finished yet," he said. Sasuke brought his face up to hers, and paused when their noses touched. He took her hands in his, and looked into her eyes. Sakura saw so much more in those eyes than ever before. Longing; happiness; compassion, and maybe even a little bit of love. _'God, that's got to give him a headache!_'she thought. Finally, he did what he wasn't doing. Sasuke slowly closed his eyes and kissed Sakura. After a second or two, Sakura kissed him back. Sasuke slowly moved his hands around, trying to decide where to put them. He made up his mind when one hand was on her back, and the other was stroking the shoulder length bubblegum- pink hair. Once her hands were free, Sakura wrapped her arms around Sasuke's neck and started messing with his raven-hair. They didn't go way too deep into the kiss, like head-on French-kissing, but kissed the other with so much passion, that it really didn't matter to them. After a few minutes, Sakura pulled back slightly; both were gasping a little. Sasuke rested his forehead against her's, eyes only half open. His hands were now around her waist, pulling her close. "I've really missed you, Sakura. I really have," he whispered to her.

"You will have to do some more stuff to prove to me that you've changed." Sasuke pushed her away, a little ticked off. Sakura was expecting this from him. The boy quickly regained his composer, trying his best not to show her how he was really feeling.

"That's the last time I express my feelings in such a way!" he scowled. Sasuke jumped off the building that they were on, and quickly started back to where they were to meet the others. Sasuke was so fast, that when sakura turned to watch him go, he became nothing but a dark blur.

FLASHBACK, PEOPLE!

Sakura secretly followed Sasuke and Neji to the gates of Konoha, though she didn't pay any attention to the Hyuga; she cared about her Sasuke. The kuniochi masked her chakra perfectly, so that the two wouldn't know that they were being followed by the Uchiha-lover. They were almost to the gates, when Neji turned to the other male and said something to Sasuke. Sakura couldn't hear what he was saying, but the Uchiha had an annoyed look on his face. All of a sudden, Sasuke disappeared from where he was standing. Sakura frantically looked around from where he previously standing, trying to figure out where he was.

Then someone cupped their hand over her mouth, and held her hands firmly behind her back, and dragged her far away from the gates. As she failed trying to brake free, they had to "shhh" her to be quiet. From that, sakura figured that her capturer was a man. The mystery man pulled her deeper into the trees where people from town wouldn't be able to see them, let alone hear them, for that matter. He stopped, still having Sakura in his grip.

"Why do you follow me everywhere?" It was Sasuke. He let go of the young Haruno. She turned to face him, but didn't look him in the eye. Sakura took a deep breath, and then let it out slowly.

"Because I care about you, Sasuke. And it hurts to know that you won't be here for a while." The Uchiha frowned down at her.

"Don't concern yourself with me. Promise me something, Sakura. Promise me that when I'm gone on this mission with Neji, you'll forget about me." Sakura couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could she possibly forget about the one she loved the most? "Promise me that instead of concerning yourself with me, you'll train as hard as you can each and every day. Got it?" Sakura nodded slowly. "Good." Sakura looked into the onyx eyes that she loved most from being in front of her, to beside Neji back at the gates. She ran as fast as she possibly could just in time to see the two ninja leave the village at top speed, becoming nothing but a blur in the distance.

_ Sasuke_, she thought. _I promise._


	8. May the truth be revealed

Two weeks passed by very slowly, and to some of the ninja on the mission, it felt more like two months. Neji still didn't approve of Naruto and Hinata, so the couple talked about personal things rarely. Sakura and Sasuke hadn't said a word to each other since the incident in the small village that they had visited, and Sakura needed to talk to him about a certain topic: her family's death. Although she didn't show it, Sakura was grieving from the sudden and unexpected death of her clan. There were some nights, on watch duty or not, she would silently weep, while the others were sleeping peacefully. The girl was deeply depressed, and she really wanted to talk to someone who would understand her pain. She would never talk to Lee, Shikamaru, or Neji about it; Ino and Hinata, well she just couldn't bare telling them what happened, and Naruto was too much of a big mouth to be trusted. And after what had happened between her and Sasuke, she couldn't expect him to care about how she feels; though she wished that he did.

Now she sat on a thick log, guarding her sleeping comrades in the still of the night. Sakura pulled out a picture of her and her mom taken a couple of months ago. They had been at the Festival of Life, a celebration welcoming newborns for that year into the village. Sakura and her mother were wearing matching red kimonos with delicate patterns f flowers and trees. Sakura light pink hair was slightly curled, framing her face nicely. She looked at her mom in the photograph. She was so radiantly beautiful. Her mom's waist-length hair was up in a bun with chopsticks in it and her bangs down around her kind looking face. She had soft, green eyes, which her daughter had obviously inherited. Her mom had one arm around her daughter's shoulders, while the other hand held her husband's old katana sword. At the time, Sakura's' dad was off on a mission for the Hokage, and he had accidently left his katana behind. As Sakura put the picture away, she felt tears running down her cheeks. She so badly wanted her mother and father with her right now. Her father had always taught the young girl how to keep strong with a level head in the worst of times, and Sakura desperately needed his support. And her mom always had great advice for every occasion, and the advice never once failed. Because right

now more than ever, Sakura needed some advice on how to stay strong in this moment of time, and who could give her better advice than he parents?

"Are you alright?"

Sasuke.

"Yeah," Sakura replied, "I'm fine. Sorry, I guess I just lost track of time for my shift." Even though he couldn't see her face, Sasuke knew that Sakura was hurting inside.

"You've been crying, Sakura." It wasn't a question- it was a statement. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's none of your business, Sasuke. So then why do you ask, anyway?" Sasuke walked over and sat down beside her on the log.

"Because I can. Now tell me hat's going on that's got you so upset."

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yep," he replied simply.

"Okay then," Sakura took a deep breath. "Well, the day before the rest of us left for the mission, I got a letter stating that the Akatsuki had killed my clan." Sasuke was completely speechless. Her clan's dead? She was feeling the same thing that he felt years ago as a child.

"Sakura, I-I'm so sorry that this happened to you. Do you know who all killed you clan?" Sakura nodded slowly.

"There were some DNA scans of blood samples from the places that all the deaths took place. There were only two kinds found. Haruno-and Uchiha." Sasuke's eyes widened.

Itatchi.

_Now he's really gonna pay for this!_ His Inner thought. "Any idea why he killed your clan," he asked rather calmly, considering that inside he was angrier than ever before.

"No. But I have a feeling that it has something to do with what happened the last time I saw him." Sasuke stood up so suddenly, that he startled Sakura. He stood in front of her, looking her in the eye with concern in his own.

"What do you mean, 'last time'? And what happened, exactly?" Sakura had no choice but to tell him what happened. She told him when Itatchi showed his face in the Leaf Village. She explained that there was a fight consisting of Itatchi against her and Naruto. Then she quietly told Sasuke everything that went on inside the older Uchiha's GenJutsu. How he had tied her up, how he had claimed that he wanted her, and the way he held her so possessively. Through the whole time that she was letting everything slip out that no one else knew, Sakura never once looked up at Sasuke until she was finished. When she did, though, she quickly wished that she hadn't.

Sasuke's face was downcast; his bangs were covering his eyes, which had the Sharingan fully activated in them. His teeth were barred, and his hands in tight fists, turning his knuckles white. Sasuke had also started to slightly shake uncontrollably with anger, hatred, detest, and the need to kill his brother.

"Sakura," he whispered, his voice dangerously low, "why didn't you tell me this sooner?" tears were once again streaming down Sakura's face.

"I-I was afraid of how you would take it. And it's just-so hard to bring back those memories!" Sakura fell off the edge of the log, doubled over on the ground at Sasuke's feet. She was crying harder than ever before. "I'm sorry, Sa-Sasuke! I'm sorry th-that I am not as strong a-as you e-exp-pected me to b-be!" she said between sobs. Sasuke just stared at her for a few moments, then knelt down in front of her, thumbing away the tears.

"Sakura, when I saw you make that Chidori, right there and then, you proved to me that you had kept your promise by becoming stronger. Listen; in a couple of days, we'll have arrived at the Akatsuki headquarters. During that battle, I'll be able to see everything that everyone's learned-especially you, Sakura." Sasuke surprised her by pulling her into a tight embrace. Sakura felt a couple of hot tears on the back of her neck.

Sasuke was crying, too. Just not as much.

As he held her, Sakura realized something: Sasuke has changed. No longer was he the cold-hearted boy that she had grown up with. No, now, he seemed to be a gentle, warm-hearted man (to her that is). True, he was still an avenger, and would keep many things to himself until he got rid of Itatchi for good, but Sakura knew that Sasuke Uchiha had deep, personal feelings towards her. She just knew it.

"I guess….we have both changed……..a lot. Huh, Sasuke?" she asked, a small, but warm smile on her face. Sasuke pulled back far enough to look her square in the face.

"We?" Sakura cocked her head to the side just a little bit, and her smile grew.

"Yes. We!" Sasuke hugged Sakura again, not wanting anything to ruin the moment with the girl he cherished the most. Unfortunately, he had to cut the moment short.

"Sakura, you should probably go and get some rest. No doubt you might need it incase we have any fights tomorrow." Sakura got up, kissed Sasuke lightly on the lips, and whispered, "Goodnight," before heading off to her tent.

"Goodnight," he whispered back.

Sasuke looked up at the sky. Tonight, the ninja camped out in a very large clearing, rolling hills in the distance. The sky was completely clear; moon and stars shinning, some bright, others not as bright, but

they all shone brightly. He wished that Sakura was still up, so that they could share this once-in-a-lifetime scenery with her, but he knew that she needed plenty of rest.

Somehow, his thought wandered over to his murderous older brother, Itatchi, and what he had done to Sakura. Sasuke had a feeling that for now, he was the only one that Sakura had told about this incident. He didn't blame her though- it must have been so hard to have brought back such memories. Then, Sasuke realized something: if Naruto hadn't knocked Sakura out of the Maykagun Sharingan when he did, there is a chance that he could have raped her or worse (if there could possibly be anything worse). He was glad that something like that didn't happen; she probably never would have recovered from the mind damage if it had gone to that point. Well, whatever the plan was for bringing don the Akatsuki, Sasuke was going to make his brother's death long and painful.


	9. Plans

The next morning, Sakura walked out of her tent to see that everyone was already up. "When did you guys wake up?" she asked them.

"Just now," Ino replied. "But Lee's been up for a while now." Sakura looked around and noticed something.

"Um, where's Sasuke?" Lee pointed to Sasuke, who was lying on the ground, obviously sleeping.

"When I got up this morning, he was way exhausted from having his Sharingan activated all night, so I let him get some more sleep." Sakura walked over to the sleeping boy. She knelt down beside him and pulled him over so that is head was resting on her lap. She looked down upon his peaceful face; there were some strands of black hair on his face, so she gently stroked it back. She looked up at the others to see them gawking at what she was doing. She decided to get their attention onto a different topic.

"So? Any ideas on how we are going to bring down the Akatsuki? I mean, shouldn't we have a plan, or something? It is not like we can just walk up to them and then we just start in attacking them-they would kill us instantly." The group started talking that lasted for about an hour on how to complete their mission before they all finally agreed on a decent plan.

"Okay, so let me get this straight," Lee started, "we are going to have about half of us go undercover as some wandering roug ninja, ask to join the Akatsuki, gain their trust as quick as possible, and then kill them when they least expect it?" Shikamaru gave an annoyed look

"Yes, we are. This is what we are going to do because it just seems a whole lot more reasonable and more planned out then just assaulting them out of the blue and using the 'power of youth' to guide us. Now there is one more thing we need to go over- who is going to go undercover?"

"Well, I'm definitely not going!" Ino said. Sakura broke a long but load silence.

"Not meaning to put anyone on the spot, or anything, but I think we should have either Hinata or Neji go in- the Byakugan would be a big help while at the AkatsukiHeadquarters; they could use it to see what is going on there in different parts of the base while we're there. What do you guys think?" the two Hyuga's looked at each other then slowly got from where they were sitting and walked over off a bit to where the others couldn't hear them to discuss the matter of who should go in. They came walking back a little over five minutes later.

"I'll be going in," Neji said quit blankly.

"I think I will go, also," Sakura said. "I'm pretty good with acting, and then Ino can help me change my look so that I don't have to use any Gen-jutsus to disguise my look, and I have more then one chakra signature." Ino's face brightened up at the thought of giving Sakura a complete make-over.

"Oh my gosh, Sakura! Don't worry; I have the most amazing ideas of what to do with your look! squeals This is going to be so much fun! Okay, we will have to change your hair color, because you know, how many people have pink hair? So, I was thinking tat for you, we go with a shade of-

"Ino!" Sakura's eye mentally twitched at the thought of what Ino had in store for her. Honestly, she didn't want to know at the moment. Shikamaru sighed.

"Okay then. We just need one more person to go in, and it will be either Lee or Sasuke. Naruto, I can't have you go in because you are not very good in keeping huge secrets-plus, the fox demon might try and release itself because you will be around the people you hate." Lee, surprisingly, backed out.

"Don't you think they'd find it ironic that there was another ninja with who only had Tai-Jutsu, which was outstanding? I've faced them before, and they would remember my moves quickly. Sasuke should go." Shikamaru stood up.

"Well then it's settled. Tomorrow, Neji, Sakura, and Sasuke are going to the Akatsuki Headquarters. I'm going to go pack my things up." The others did this as well.

"Hey, Sakura!" Ino called from her tent. "Since you still have someone sleeping on your lap, I'm going to go ahead and pack some f your things up for you, okay?"

"Yeah, thanks, Ion!" Sakura called back.

Sakura looked down at Sasuke. He really did look so calm and peaceful when he was sleeping. Then, she noticed a small smirk on his face, which only made her wonder what the young Uchiha could possibly be dreaming about. After a while, Sakurajust couldn't resist. She started to gently stroke his raven-black locks. She did this for about five minutes; his hair was so much softer then she had imagined it would be. Sasuke started to stir, and s she stopped the stroking of his hair. Sasuke slowly opened his eyes to see Sakura's smiling face looking down upon him. The sun was just behind her head, giving the impression that she was glowing, just like an angel. The sweetest angel he'd ever seen. Plus, he liked the fact that he had woken up with her there with him. He could get used o something like that.

"Morning, sleepy-head! Did you sleep alright?" Sasuke looked back at her giving the kniochi a rare, but a so true smile.

"How long have I been asleep?" he asked quietly. Sakura pondered this question for a moment.

"Well, I don't know how long you've been sleeping since early this morning, but I think you've been sleeping on my lap for about an hour and a half." That was when Sasuke realized that he was on her lap. He thought that there was a pillow under his head and she was sitting behind his head, but boy, was he wrong. He didn't expect her to do such a thing-for him. Sasuke, not really knowing what he himself was doing, slowly brought his hand up to Sakura's face and gently stroked her smooth cheek. Sakura blushed slightly under his touch; she just loved the feeling of him touching her.

"Can't the two of you do that crap somewhere else?" Shikamaru asked. "Seriously, we're only packing up in case we have to get out of here in a short notice of time, so go somewhere else to do that." Sasuke gave the lazy ninja a very pissed look, and he and Sakura disappeared in a poof of smoke. "Love is just so troublesome," Shikamaru said sighing. Ino walked up behind him and hugged him from behind.

"Is it, now?" she whispered in his ear. He smirked.

"Yes, it is. Especially with you. And that's just the way I like it."

* * *

Sasuke and Sakura reappeared on the top of a hill about a mile from where the other ninja were; they were in the same position as they were in when Sasuke woke up.

"There, that's better," Sasuke said aloud. They stayed in that position for a while. Sasuke was lying on his back with his hands on his stomach with his fingers interlocked; his head on Sakura's lap. Sakura was stroking Sasuke's hair (again). If you think about it, it is a very cute scene. After almost fifteen minutes of silence, Sasuke broke the silence. "So? What did the rest of you guys talk about while I was sleeping?"

"Plans on how to take down the Akatsuki," she said simply.

"And?"

"We are having three people go and disguise themselves as roug ninja who want to join the Akatsuki. We gain their trust, and when they least expect it and when they are at their weakest, we attack with full force. It will be planned out, of course."

"So who all is going in undercover?" he asked her.

"Let's see- there is you-"

"Of course," Sasuke said smirking.

"-Neji-"

"Because of his Byakugan."

"-and me." At that moment, Sasuke sat up suddenly and turned to look at Sakura. There was anger in his eyes.

"You're not going," he said flatly. Sakura stared at him with a confused look on her face.

"What do you mean I'm not going? Of course I'm going!" she protested. Sasuke turned his face away from hers.

"No," he whispered. Sakura couldn't believe this.

"But-"

"NO!" he yelled in her face. Sasuke stood up and started making his way back to the camp where the others were. Sakura also got up and ran after him.

"Sasuke, why don't you want me going?" Sasuke just kept walking at a steady pace.

"Because I can't take the risk of you getting hurt," he called back to her; he didn't even turn his head.

"Sasuke!" she yelled.

Now Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks, but he still didn't turn around. Sakura also stopped, about five feet behind him.

"Sakura," he whispered, "The members of the Akatsuki aren't stupid. They could easily figure out who we are and what our plans are- and then what? Knowing them, they would probably do everything in their power to torture us. And if that happens-who knows? My brother might just try and kill you slowly….right before my eyes." Sakura quietly walked up behind him and snaked her arms around his torso. She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, eyes closed with content. Sasuke paused for a moment. Then, he laid his arms gently over hers, simply loving her tender, loving touch.

"Have a little faith in me, will 'ya? I think you'd be more than just shocked at what I can really do." She said sweetly to hm.

"Do you mean to say that I haven't seen what you can do outside of being a ninja?" he said, giving his signature smirk. (A.N. Not his evil smirk!)

"Not even close!" Now she was the one smirking. Sasuke and Sakura stayed in that position for another few minutes. Sasuke noticed that Sakura was starting to drift to sleep. So he took her arms from around his waist and lie down on the soft, green grass, motioning for her to lie down beside him. When she finally got down beside him, Sasuke put his arm around her, and she rested her head on his lower shoulder and chest. Sasuke decided to break the silence.

"Is it just me, or does that cloud right there look like the back of my hair?" he asked her. (A.N. Yeah, way to go, Sasuke! You totally ruined the precious moment!) Sakura looked up at the cloud that Sasuke was pointing to. She pondered over its shape for a moment.

"It looks like a ducks butt," she replied. Sasuke turned his head and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Are you saying that my hair looks like a ducks butt?" he asked suspiciously. Sakura only smiled deviously at him.

"Well, it does!"

"Do you want to know what I think your hair looks like?" Sakura only gave him a "bring it on!" kind of look. "Your hair looks like it was eternally stained by dark pink bubble gum, turning your hair that particular shade of pink, and the color will never come out, even when it grows out it will be pink, giving no evidence that your hair could have possibly have been a different color." He waited for a better comeback, but all he got out of the girl was,

"That's the most bizarre theory I've ever heard anyone say about the color of my hair!"

"Well, that's not very nice, now is it?" Sakura giggled, making him smile slightly. A smile that he would show to no one else. Sakura closed her eyes, once again starting to drift to sleep. Sasuke rested his head against hers, his eyes closing as well.

* * *

"What do you think they are doing right now?" Ino questioned aloud. Everyone else just shrugged.

"Well, lets find out," Hinata said as she activated her Byakugan. After a few moments, she smiled and then turned off her blood line trait.

"So?" Ino inquired.

"They are lying on the grass; she is in his arms and they are both sleeping."

"Lucky," Naruto mumbled. Neji turned and looked at him, eyeing him suspiciously.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Naruto turned and faced the male Hyuga.

"I mean that he is lucky because he gets to spend time with the girl that he cares about most, but I'm not even aloud to talk to Hinata." Neji gave Naruto a very nasty look.

"Only because I don't think you are the right kind of guy for Hinata. Nothing personal, really."

"And why is that, huh?" he asked. Neji only smirked.

"Oh, the answer is simple, really. You not right for her because you are a monster."

* * *

Sasuke woke up suddenly, sensing someone's chakra rising. He quickly realized that it was Naruto's. He quickly woke up Sakura and together they transported themselves to where they sensed the boy's chakra. When they got there, the first thing they heard was, "you are a monster" out of Neji. Sakura looked at him in total and complete shock t what he had just said to Naruto. Unfortunately, though, he didn't stop there.

"Don't you get it? You're nothing but a monstrous demon; a threat in everyone's lives. And that's only part of the reason why you can't even become the Hokage. Other tan the fact that you are a Jinchuriki, you are a failure; weak; it took you three tries to graduate at the Academy, and you failed all of them. When you entered the Chuunin Exams, you still didn't have the fundamentals down. Do you know what that says about you, Naruto? That you are nothing. And that Hinata deserves better." Everyone just starred at Neji, too shocked to say anything. Sakura glanced at Naruto, and her eyes went wide with fear.

To be continued...


	10. Seeing Red

Kohona's Cherry Blossom  
Chapter 10 Seeing Red  
Okay people, I know that I should have done this a while ago when I first started this fanfic, but I forgot about it then became too lazy to remember, so I will say this now—  
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Naruto!! I never have, most likely never will. I do not own it, but the person who sits by you in your least favorite class does (I think). This is for all chapters in this story, and I probably won't be saying it until the next fanfic. Okay, now you may read chapter 10 (OMG, 10!).

Naruto's chakra was red. It was also starting to bubble up around him, slightly giving off steam. Sakura could feel the atmosphere around her become dense because of how much of the fox demon's chakra was leaking out of the teenage vessel. After this started to happen, Ino, unfortunately, fainted from shock, so Lee and Shikamaru caught her before she hit the ground, quickly backing her and themselves out of the soon to become crossfire that was about to start between Naruto and Neji. After seeing what was happening with Naruto and the demon inside him, Neji only smirked (idiot).  
"See what I mean? You can't even control what is sealed inside of you." Now Neji had really done it. Because of what Neji had just said about controlling what was inside of Naruto, the red bubbling chakra was now taking form of a fox. Not only that, but there was that long tail. Sasuke could remember Jurriya(sp?) telling Kakashi that if Naruto got to the point where the demon was starting to take control of the boy, and a tail had formed itself out of the chakra, you were to NEVER to let a second tail form. Because if you did, long story short, you were doomed if you couldn't calm him down ASAP. And if Neji kept at it with insulting Naruto in this sort of way, it is close to impossible to calm the boy down. But at the rate this was all going at, it seemed that it was already too late. Because Naruto had already grown four of the nine tails. Seeing this, Sakura had started to make her way toward Naruto, but Sasuke held her back in a tight grasp.  
"Are you insane?! Do you have any idea how-"  
"Sasuke, I know all of the risks at stake. But this is the first time that he has ever gotten to the point where he has formed four tails. Let me do this!" After a moment of some decision making, Sasuke slowly let her go. Sakura very cautiously walked out over to Naruto, who had his head down and his fists clenched at his sides. She noticed that the closer she got to him, the heavier the air around her became; the chakra of the kiuubi leaking out of the human vessel was that strong.  
"Naruto, please, don't listen to Neji!" she said to him. There was a firm reassurance in her voice. "Naruto," she whispered to him, "please, don't listen to what Neji says! He- he doesn't know what you and Hinata have with each other- he is too blind to see it! Look, I know what you're thinking- but don't hurt Neji because he's an idiot! Be the better person and…" but she never got the chance to finish; Naruto had punch her in the stomach- hard. Sakura was sent flying back. She would have gone back a whole mile further if it had not been for Sasuke to have caught her. But even then, he was also sent back a ways with the amount of force from Naruto.  
"You really shouldn't tell people what to do, Sakura," Naruto said in a horse voice, "it can really get annoying after a while." Sasuke held Sakura's limp body in his arms, but all he could stare at was Naruto. 'Did he really just say that? No,' He thought, 'it has to be the fox demon speaking for him; he would never say that to Sakura.' He couldn't believe it. He just couldn't believe it.  


Believe it.  
That was one of Naruto's most common things to say-other than, "I'm gonna become Hokage someday," then he would always say, "Believe it!" to Sasuke, it seemed like that that phrase was all he really could say when they were kids. "I'm gonna become Hokage someday, believe it!"  
"I'm a ninja now, believe it!"  
"I'm not afraid, believe it!"  
"I'm going to beat every one of you, beeeelieve it!"  
Right now, Sasuke wasn't looking at the same Naruto he used to know. No, this was someone a whole lot different. This new Naruto- when Sasuke saw first saw him again a few months ago, he really saw the future Hokage. Naruto had obviously matured, a lot. He wasn't exactly the same screw-up that he remembered. But now- well, Sasuke just didn't know what to think. The kiuubi was trying to break free of whom he was sealed inside of, and Naruto just had no control over it.

"Sasuke, please!"  
Sasuke suddenly seemed to snap out of his train of thought to find Hinata gripping his arm very tightly, pleading with him.  
"Sasuke, please, stop Naruto! He has gone too far with this!" Sasuke looked at the spot where Naruto and Neji were, and soon realized that the two were in battle. Neji had his Byakugan activated, and Naruto thankfully hadn't grown any more tails. There was a kunai dug into Neji's shoulder, and two kunai hit directly where some of Naruto's chakra points are. Naruto held his hand out a little. There was an enormous amount of red chakra was swimming into a spiral ball in the palm of the boy's hand, making the air around twist wildly. Now everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Naruto was charging (slow-mo, people) at Neji with a fully fledged Rasengan of the demon's chakra. Now things went back to normal speed, (which would make it seem fast to you if you were in this situation). Neji dodged the dangerous attack, but not without being skimmed with it. The rest of the Rasengan went plunging into the ground, creating a large crater in the earth's surface. The impact in the ground was so much, that it sent everyone else back to where Sasuke, Hinata, and the still unconscious Sakura were.  
"What should we do? Sasuke?" Now they were all looking at him, waiting for further instructions. He didn't say anything right away, but Shikamaru did.  
"Sasuke," he said, "you do realize that if this goes on any longer, there is a chance that someone from the Akatsuki could come looking to see what's going on and then discover us, right?"  
"I know, I know!"  
"Then what should we do?" Everyone was still looking at him for the answer. And for once, he didn't have one.  
"I…I don't know. I've never seen this happen to Naruto before so…nothing." he just a bit too quietly. He looked down. 'Sakura would know what to do…' he thought.  
"You might want to tell Hinata that," Shikamaru said aloud. Sasuke looked up to see Hinata fast walking over to where Naruto was, just like Sakura had done earlier.  
"Hinata!" he shouted, "that isn't a smart idea! Looked at what happened to Sakura; do you want that to happen to you?"  
"Well, I am not going to let him lose everything that he has accomplished because of one mistake!" she shouted back at him. 'Since when did she stop stuttering?' he thought.

(Hinata POV)  
The others didn't know it, but there were tears in her eyes. She had known Naruto for over ten 

years, ever since they were around seven years old. That is practically twelve years. And about 4 ½ years ago, she and Naruto had really started to become friends-it wasn't just her secretly watching him from the sidelines, then fainting when he discovered her presence- no. Starting then, she wasn't AS shy around him as she used to be.

FLASHBACK! (You people must be getting tired of these kinds of things!)

Hinata was in her room, doing her usual spring cleaning. As she was putting away a brand new skirt that she was going to where for her older cousin's bridal shower (no, not Neji), the phone on the dresser next her window rang. She walked over to it and looked at the caller ID. It was Ino.  
"Hello?"  
"Hey, Hinata! It's Ino!"  
"Oh, hi Ino!"  
"Look, tonight, me, some of the other girls and the guys are going to that hot new club tonight. Would you like to come along with us? We are going to be there from 7:00 to probably around midnight."  
"Oh, um, sure! That sounds like fun, Ino." Hinata looked at the clock that was next her light blue, cordless phone; it was already 6:27P.M. "Just let me finish up cleaning my room, and I'll be there! But wait… what do you think I should wear? I mean, I want to wear something that looks real nice, but is comfortable at the same time."  
"Hmm… let's see… oh! How about that mini skirt Sakura bought you for your birthday last year with the brown leggings and the staples black top with the blue polka dots that your mom got you recently? That should look nice together- and I can show you how to dance in skirts!"  
"Okay, thanks! What if a drunken guy I don't know starts feeling me up? I'm sort of scarred of things like that happening.  
"Relax Hinata- just come in and we'll make sure nothing happens to you! See you tonight!"

Later that night, Hinata was wearing what Ino had suggested-and it actually felt comfortable and looked cute on her. She stood outside the door to the club, nervous as heck on going in. She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, opened the door, and walked inside.  
Inside the club looked so amazing! There was a huge dance floor made up of tiles with a variety of funky colors. At one side of the floor was a small place where people could order food and sit at one of the tables or booths that ran along two of the walls of the place. On the other side of the floor was a bar. There were stools at the bar for people to sit at, but no tables. All around the club it was almost completely dark, accept for where the bright lights were swarming and flashing all around in different colors. Hinata saw her friends at one of the booths on the far back wall of the club. As she walked over to them (while avoiding some of the crazy dancers) she noticed who all was here. There was Ino; Sakura; Tenten; Kiba; Neji; Sasuke; Shikamaru; and Naruto. Once she got to the table she shyly waved to everyone with a quiet "Hi". Once the guys saw her, Shikamaru and Sasuke just raised there eyebrows in surprise, Kiba spat out his drink (which almost hit Ino), and Naruto sat there gawking at her, then said,  
"Wow, Hinata! You look so hot!" Well, that earned Naruto a slap on the head from a P.O.ed Neji, and made Hinata blush madly. All the girls complimented her on how she looked. Ino smiled to herself.  
"Am I good with looks, or what?" she said proudly.  
"What?" Kiba said stupidly. He was too busy starring at some girl's but to hear what Ino had 

just said. That had rightfully earned him a good kick from Sakura and Tenten, who knew why he didn't know what they were talking about.  
"Well, now that everyone is finally here, let's go dance our butts off 'till we can't dance no more!" Tenten shouted.

So basically, everyone just started dancing and having a good time. And a good time for Kiba would mean slapping girls butts. After about four or so hours, Hinata went over to the bar and ordered a Sprite. While waiting Naruto came over and sat by her. She ordered the most caffeinated drink on the planet-Red Bull!  
"So, are you having fun, Hinata?" he asked loudly. The music was blaring. She nodded shyly. "Cool!" he replied. They both got their drinks at the same time. Hinata sipped hers, while Naruto chugged his in two gulps. They watched other people on the floor-either jumping up and down to the music, or dancing with an explosion flying limbs without a care in the world. Over all the noise, though no one else seemed to notice they could hear Sakura screaming,  
"Kiba, if you EVER slap my butt one more time, I'm gonna pulverize you into a big ball of nothing!"  
"I-I'm going to g-go outside and get some air." she said to him. She quickly walked out of the large place, and was welcomed by the cool, fresh air of the night. She leaned against the wall, enjoying the peace.  
"Mind if I join you?" She looked over quickly and saw Naruto coming outside from the club.  
"Um- s-sure," she was blushing like crazy again. They stood there for about ten minutes in silence, until Hinata finally confessed.  
"Na-Naruto!" He looked over at her, surprised.  
"Yeah, Hinata?" She took a deep breath.  
"IjustwamtedtosaytathItreallyenjoybeingaroundyou, eventhoughIdon'treallyshowit, andIlikeyoualot, andihveforalongtime. Is that okay?" she said in one breath.

Naruto just stared at her, a little shocked. Now it was his turn to blush.  
"Um, I like you too Hinata!" he said with a big grin. "But if you liked me for a long time, why didn't you ever say anything?" Hinata, starting to regret her actions, started messing around with her fingers.  
"Well, I-I've been too shy to s-say anyth-thing!" she whispered.  
"Oh, come on now, Hinata! You have no reason to be shy around me! And you should trynot to stutter as much, you know"  
"Oh, s-sorry, N-Naruto! It's just, I get really nervous around most people!" she said quietly. Naruto nodded his head showing that he understood what she meant. Then he had an idea. "Hinata, I have something for you!" Before she could respond, he kissed her lightly on the lips, and led her back inside for some more dancing.

END LONG FLASHBACK! (I guess that was kind of pointless!)

Naruto was starting to make another Rasengan- and Hinata was still only about a half of a mile away from him. She started to run as fast as she could to get to him. She just couldn't let Naruto do this to himself.  
"Naruto!!" she screamed.  


The moment he heard her scream his name, Naruto stopped dead in his tracks in what he was doing. Hinata also stopped, becoming hesitant on if she should get any closer. The power from the Rasengan was gone from his hand, and the long, red tails of the fox's cloak were retreating. The form that the demons chakra had taken was no longer a fox. Once he was back to normal, Naruto dropped to his knees; his breathing was heavy. He couldn't believe what just happened. How could he have done something so stupid-letting the fox demon get the better of him? And the only thing that made it worse was that everyone had seen what had just happened-including Hinata. Naruto had never wanted her to see this side of him- he didn't want her to fear him for what was sealed inside. Over the past few years, he had tried so hard to make sure that this would never happen around her. But now, this time, he blew it. Big time. There was absolutely no word to describe how much Naruto regretted his foolish actions.

Hinata stood there, just looking at Naruto. Relief was rapidly spreading throughout her entire body because Naruto was finally back to his normal self.  
"Naruto!" she cried happily. Hinata was smiling greatly. But as Naruto slowly brought his head and looked at her, the smile on her face went as quickly as it came. When she looked at Naruto, there were tears in his eyes, full of sadness and ultimate regret. And seeing him like that just killed Hinata. And then, before she knew it, he had disappeared in a puff of smoke. Neji looked at the spot where Naruto previously was, shook his head, and then walked over to his own tent.  
"At least it's over," Ino said quietly. Shikamaru and Lee nodded their heads in agreement.  
"No," someone said weakly. They all turned their attention from Hinata to the form in Sasuke's arms. Sakura had finally regained consciousness. Her breathing was slow and a little rigid. Her eyes were half open and she was staring up at the sky above her. Her mouth was slightly open. Sakura slowly stood up, but when she was only half way up, Sasuke wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled back down into him; gently, but firmly.  
"You shouldn't be moving around right now in this condition," he said. Sakura turned her head and glared at him.  
"Sasuke, let go of me." Sasuke only glared back.  
"No," he said.  
"Let. Go. Or else," she said in a low voice. Sasuke perfectly raised an eyebrow at her.  
"Or else what? You can't—"  
"Sasuke, just let her go," Ino said annoyed, defending Sakura. Once again, the other two boys only nodded their heads in agreement.  
"Fine…" he grumbled. Once Sakura was up, Sasuke also poofed to a different location. Sakura limped over to where Hinata was.  
"Hinata…" she said softly. The girl looked at Sakura; no expression on her face. "Go after him, Hinata. Talk to him- it usually works." Hinata thought for a moment.  
"Yeah- okay. But shouldn't you go after Sasuke? I can tell you where he is you know." Sakura smiled lightly at her friend.  
"No, that is alright. He just needs tome to cool off. Now, go get Naruto." Hinata gave a smile to her pink-haired friend. Then, she too, poofed away.

A/N Sorry i haven't udated lately-I've been kind of busy.

Tell me what you think! I love you all!


	11. Confessions

A few minutes later, Hinata was in an area in a nearby forest that wasn't too far from the camp spot. She looked around for a bit, noticing how high and thinck the trees were. She spotted an orange dot up in one of the trees, and silently jumped to the same branch, only a few yards away. She made sure her chakra was well disguised before doing so. He didn't know that she was there. Good, she thought. She knew that sooner or later, he would have to notice another presence right behind him. He always did. But she didn't really want it to be too soon. Hinata watched him as he put his head in his hands and cry; she decided to reveal herself.  
"Why are you crying?" she asked softly. Naruto quickly turned around to see Hinata. He slowly stood up where he was and faced his body towards her. His expression softened as he bent his head down and looked at his feet.  
"What are you doing here?" he asked. He sounded casual, yet at the same time, he was quiet. Hinata's shy features started to take over her once again.  
"I…I just wanted to make sure if you were, you know… okay, and everything…" her voice trailed off.  
"Hmpf. You should really be more worried about Neji. He is the one who was attacked by a monster—"  
"Naruto!" she interrupted. There was a sense of shock in her voice, but mostly anger/frustration. Naruto raised his head to see her looking at him with sadness in her pearl-white eyes.  
"Naruto… how… how could you say something like that? How could you ever think that you are a— a monster?"  
"Hinata," he said, raising his voice, "you saw what happened back there! What I did! You saw that…thing… that I turned into; and to think that what that was wasn't even close to the worst part of it all. I could have killed everyone, Hinata! How can you stand someone like that- someone like me? Don't you get it, already? I'm a monster! A demon. I-I shouldn't even be allowed to live for what I am! I should just be killed." He said the last sentence very quietly.  
Hinata remained silent. Naruto still didn't know the truth. After everything that they have been through together, he still didn't know what she really thought of him. He didn't know.  
"Neji's words have gotten to you, haven't they Naruto?" she whispered. It wasn't really a question; it was more like a statement. "Naruto, I don't know if you have noticed before, but…. I have been watching you for a very long time now… years, in fact," she said. Naruto looked up at her. There was a small amount of interest that shown on his face. "Ever since we were little, I've been secretly watching you, Naruto. And – I watched you because I was interested in what you were like because of what everyone was telling me. People kept on saying these things about what you were- or what was inside of you, I should say. But I didn't listen. I didn't care. After everything I was being wrongly warned about, I just kept on following you. Over the years, I was able to really see how much you struggled throughout life- with the fact of not having any real family ever since you were only a year old, and throughout the beginning of your childhood, you didn't have anyone whom you could really call 'family'. And then there was the thing with people blaming you for things that you were clear not ever responsible for. Then, once we became older, I watched you as you progressively made your way to being one of the top ninja from our year after graduating from the academy; then becoming so close to winning the Chunnin Exams; heck, you've even become a Jonin! And from all the times I've watched you- from fighting in a battle to being the small hero in some foreign town, I just have never once seen a monster. Sure, okay, the thing that is sealed inside of you is a monster, or demon, but," she walked up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, "that doesn't in any way make you the monster here. On the contrary, I see you as a hero, as the Fourth did. By keeping the fox inside of you, well, INSIDE of you, you are preventing it from destroying the village and harming other people. Sure, there are some times every now and then when the chakra of the fox demon will start to leak out of you when you start to lose control over it, but that's what makes you human, like everybody else; because you make mistakes. I mean, we all screw up sometimes! Just look at Lady Tsunade! She is always screwing herself up!" This comment made Naruto chuckle lightly. Naruto sighed, interlocking his fingers behind her back. Naruto looked into her eyes, and a smile slowly formed on his lips.  
"Hinata, thank you…. For everything. I don't know what I would ever do without you. It seems that every time something's the matter with me, you are always there to make things right. Like just now. You don't know how much you truly mean to me. And also, just knowing that you will always be with me, which just calms my fear and all of my anger. Look, I know that I've said this before, but…… I love you, Hinata," he said softly. Hinata mentally gasped. She looked into those deep blue eyes of the man in front of her. She was ready to say what she has been dying to tell him for a long time now.  
"Naruto, I love you, too!" she exclaimed. But before Naruto could say anything else, Hinata quickly brought her lips to his, silencing him. The kiss only lasted for about three seconds. When Hinata pulled back, she looked into Naruto's eyes again.  
'_You can really get lost in those eyes,'_ she thought. Naruto smirked.  
"You know, I wasn't exactly finished yet," he whispered. He put one hand on the back of her upper neck, and kissed her full on the lips. With a small amount of force, Naruto ran his middle finger up and down her spine. This gesture sent chills of pleasure throughout her Hinata's body, and made her arch her back, bringing her into Naruto. He licked her bottom lip, pleading for entrance. She gladly accepted. Hinata ran her fingers through Naruto's hair, making him moan slightly. She just loved it when he did that. After a few minutes, the two pulled away, panting lightly.  
"Naruto… we need to go back…" she said, putting her head against his chest. Naruto rested his chin atop of her head, keeping his arms around her midsection near the waist.  
"Do we really have to? I mean, I'm perfectly fine with where we are. We have finally got the privacy we've been asking for!"  
"Yes, I know that! But never the less, we are still on an S-ranked mission. We still need to discuss with the others how everything is going to work out tomorrow. Then, once Neji has left with Sasuke and Sakura, we will get all of the time in the world with each other. Now how does that sound?" Naruto thought for a moment about that comment.  
"Can we make him leave early?" he asked "innocently". Hinata playfully hit him on the shoulder. She tried to hit him a second time, but he caught her hand. As he was going in for a second kiss, Hinata put her finger to his lips.  
"Save it for tomorrow, okay?" she asked super sweetly. Naruto was about to protest…..but then he saw her puppy dog eyes. Hinata didn't even have to quiver her bottom lip; she just put that look in her eyes and she already had Naruto under her spell. The boy whined but agreed. Together, they poofed themselves back to the campsite.


	12. Makeovers!

"Good to see the two of you back again," Shikamaru said from a ways behind Hinata. The two looked around them to see Shikamaru, Lee, Ino, Sakura, and Neji.  
"So……what were you two doing all ALONE?" Sakura asked suspiciously. There was a wide smirk on her face.  
"Nothing," the two said in unison.  
"That explains the position that the two of you are in!" Lee said mockingly. The others started snickering—even Neji. The two looked at the position they were in. Hinata started to laugh lightly when she saw Naruto go red from embarrassment.  
"Oh, how troublesome," Shikamaru sighed. "There's been a change of plans, so listen up." Everyone got quiet and gave Shikamaru their undivided attention. Shikamaru took a nervous, deep breath. His voice became very serious. "Okay, so after putting a lot of thought into it, more than I would usually do, I have decided that Hinata will go with Sasuke and Sakura. Not Neji." Everyone stared at Shikamaru. Lee, Sakura, and Ino's jaws had all dropped to the ground. Neji was in complete shock, and it was defiantly showing on his face. Without even realizing it, Naruto had pulled Hinata even closer to him. After a few minutes, Shikamaru sighed heavily. "Look, I know it's an unexpected change in plans, but like I said, I thought about for a while, and I have reasons."  
"They better be pretty darn good reasons," Naruto grumbled.  
"Naruto, Neji, after today's event's, I've noticed that you two don't get along too well. That feat could be a major downfall—for everyone. You two need to start some kind of bonding, whether you like it or not. And Hinata." He turned to the girl. "You have a lot of potential—and now is your chance to make something out of it. I think by going into the Akatsuki, you'll learn that you really are capable of a lot of things. Got it?" Hinata nodded her head, indicating that she understood everything. "Good."  
_I hope I made the right decision,_ Shikamaru thought.

Later that night while everyone else was asleep (Naruto and Hinata in the same tent), Sakura snuck out of her tent and headed straight for the spot of the clearing that she and Sasuke were at earlier that day. She figured that it would be a good spot where she could gaze up at the stars and think about how she should act as a fake Akatsuki member. As she was approaching her destination, she saw someone already there, laying down and looking up at the stars.  
"Didn't expect to see you here—Sasuke," She said. Her voice startled him a little bit. He was that deep in thought. Sasuke raised his head just enough to see Sakura walk over and lie down beside him on the soft grass.  
"What are you doing here?" he asked bluntly, laying his head back down. "Shouldn't you be back at the camp with everybody else—sleeping?" He had his usual monotone voice.  
"Nah. I couldn't sleep. Plus, I had some stuff t think about, and I wanted to be at a place where I could do that," she answered. Sasuke's curiosity got the better of him.  
"What kind of stuff?" **(Okay, NOW there is some emotion in his voice!)**  
"Just…….stuff," she answered nervously.  
"Sakura!" he whined, getting annoyed.  
"Just the usual!" she stated defiantly. "What the constellations say; if there is anything going on between Ino and Shikamaru; how I'm going to act as an Akatsuki member………………..us." She said the last part as quietly as possible, but Sasuke still heard in perfectly. Sasuke turned his head and gave her a questioning look.  
"Us?"  
Sakura sat up and hugged her knees very closely to her chest. Almost like a scared child. She then let out a small but meaningful sigh.  
"When I say _us_, I mean like, "is this all going anywhere? And if so, then where?" In the future, will things stay the same between us? Will it turn into something much more? Or…" her voice trailed off. Sasuke sat up and faced her, fearing the worst.  
"Or what?" he questioned. It was just so hard to be his usual, uncaring self when he saw her like this. Sakura quickly turned away, tears brimming her eyes, threatening to fall.  
"Or… or will something go completely wrong between us and will we end up hating each other!" Sasuke put his arms around Sakura and pulled her onto his lap. He rested her head in the crook of his neck, sort of near his collar bone, and he let her cry into him. Sasuke stroked her for a moment before saying,  
"Sakura, please, don't you ever think that. Don't ever go and think that I might hate you, because I don't, and I never will. Now, it's extremely hard for me to go and hate you. Things will always be okay between. I promise," he said to her soothingly. Sakura continued to cry, but it seemed to be letting up.  
"But, how do you know? How do you know something bad won't happen?" she said. Sakura thought for a moment as he laid himself and Sakura back onto the grass, putting her slightly on top of him. Sasuke continued to stroke her hair as he thought of something to say. He heaved a sigh.  
"Sakura, I don't know. I don't know what all will happen in the future. I don't think anyone does. But I will tell you this: the road of life will always lead you to some of the most twisted roads you'll ever come across. And we can never predict how to go along with it before we get there. But once we do, all we are allowed to do is just go along with it, and—hope for the best. Sakura, if there ever comes a time when we get into a disagreement about something, we'll work it out and everything will be okay."  
_**'Since when did I become so freaking' poetic?! Ugh, this girl has me going on the verge of crazy!' **_  
Sakura propped herself up on one elbow and brought her face to hover above Sasuke's. Sasuke had to force himself not to blush from the scene. With Sakura's face above his, and the moon shining brightly behind her head, he got the impression that she looked just like an angel. Sasuke put his hand to her cheek.  
"I hope you're right," she whispered. Sasuke gave her a small smile—the smallest smile in the universe. And yet, it was also the most reassuring. Sasuke then kissed Sakura lightly on the forehead.  
"We've got a big day tomorrow. We should probably head back and get some sleep."  
"Yeah, we probably should."  
As they stood up, Sasuke noticed Sakura waver a bit on her feet. He sighed, walked over and picked her up bridal style.  
"Hey! Sasuke, what are you—" but she was interrupted by something: his lips. Sasuke let the kiss linger for a moment then slowly pulled back. "Sasuke, what…what was that for?" she asked quietly. He only smirked and gave her his usual, "Hn". Then, before she knew it, they were in the middle of the camp. Sasuke wordlessly walked Sakura over to her tent. He laid her down, draped the blankets over her, and kissed her on the forehead for the second time that night.  
"Goodnight," she whispered.  
"Hn."  
As Sasuke was lying down in his tent, he thought about what Sakura had been recently thinking about. All of her doubts about them and any future they might or might not have together. Sasuke really hoped that what he had told her was true, because he himself was now starting to have some doubts of his own. He really didn't want to end up hating her in the end; although he would never admit it to anyone, he cared deeply for her. True, anything that might have sparked between them might have just started sometime on this mission, but he still had strong feelings. Sasuke started wondering how much he REALLY cared about Sakura. He was still debating on if it was true feelings, or some kind of unnecessary lust. He couldn't be sure just yet.

The next morning, Sasuke woke up feeling completely drained. He wanted to get back to sleep, but then he remembered that he had to start getting ready to leave. As Sasuke walked out of the tent, he saw all of the guts outside, a very pissed Neji and Naruto, but the three girls were nowhere in sight.  
"Um, Neji? Shouldn't you be getting ready to go?" Neji glanced at him, annoyed.  
"What are you talking about? I'm not going ANYWHERE. Hinata is."  
"Where are the girls?" Sasuke asked aloud. Shikamaru was the first to answer.  
"Ino's giving sacra and Hinata _makeovers_. That way, they won't have to use up any chakra worrying about Gen-jutsu, or anything. During the time, Sakura is teaching Hinata how to change chakra signatures. That way, no one will recognize them through that method, either." Suddenly, Ino appeared beside Naruto, an excited grin printed on her face. Well, Naruto, being, _Naruto_, he was so startled by her that he jumped about half a foot into the air. Ino simply growled.  
"Oh, calm down, Naruto, you're fine!" she huffed. She quickly gave the others that same excited grin. "Okay, I have worked pretty much all morning with these makeovers. And now, I present to you…Hinata!" On the other side of the circle of guys, across from Ino, Hinata appeared. Every single guy gasped—except Neji and Sasuke, who merely raised eyebrows in shock. Naruto's eyes nearly popped out of his head. Hinata's once purple hair was now various hues of dark aqua. Her bangs were gone, and were now parted to the sides with her chin-length hair. Her skin was just a little bit darker, but not so much that it looks fake. Hinata was now wearing very honest makeup, making her facial features look very natural. Her eyes were still milky white.  
"Well," Hinata said, "what do you think? Be honest!" While the other guys nodded their approval, Naruto said nothing, until…  
"Ino, I officially hate you," he said. This shocked Ino and got her a bit peeved as well.  
"What, why? She looks amazing!" Ino protested. Naruto sighed.  
"I know. This is why I hate you. With how she looks now, she going to have even MORE guys stalk than before. And this time, I'm not going to be there for her when she has to deal with pervy men!" Hinata giggled and sat down between Naruto's legs, leaning her head back onto his chest.  
"Relax, Naruto. Sakura will be there. She has had some nasty experiences with pervs in the past few years, so if I get into any trouble, she will be there to help me out!" she said cheerfully. There was a small amount of silence, and then Ino spoke.  
"Okay, and now I present to you….Sakura!" After a few seconds everyone turned their heads towards Sasuke's direction, and gasped. Sasuke turned his head around and fell completely off the tree stump he was sitting on, putting him on his back.  
Sakura's hair was now down to her butt, with choppy bangs that ended over her eyebrows. Her hair was white with a hint of blonde (a little lighter that Brook Hogan's hair) and she had highlights that were the same color as her natural hair color. She had on dark eye make to bring out the intensity of her green eyes. Sasuke's mouth was agape, and his eyes seemed to be bulging out of his head.  
So much for calm, cool, and collected.  
Sakura could only smirk from the look on his face. Ino quietly walked up behind Sakura and pushed her forward. The girl fell forward and landed on Sasuke. He caught her by placing his hands on both sides of her stomach, not too far from her breasts (feels weird typing that word!). From the sudden stop in motion caused by Sasuke, Sakura's head jerked forward—almost causing a collision of her lips with Sasuke's. After lingering for a couple of seconds, Sakura brought her face up from Sasuke's. While a light blush of pink ran across Sasuke's face, Sakura's face was deep red. As Sakura was debating on if she should go in for a real kiss or not, Ino tapped her on the shoulder and whispered, "You're welcome," with a smirk. Sasuke quickly gave Ino "the look". As Sasuke turned his attention back to Sakura, he noticed something.  
"Sakura, you highlights, they're-**green**!" he exclaimed. The two stood up while the rest of the guys in the group took notice to Sasuke's announcement. Sakura explained why the highlights changed colors  
"It's quite simple, really. You see, these are not normal highlights: they correspond with whatever mood I'm in. if I'm happy, or just being myself, they'll be pink. If I am angry: red. Feeling complete hatred: black, and so on. And if I don't want them to show what I'm feeling, I can easily make them stop changing for however long I desire. Pretty cool, huh?"  
"Pretty weird, if you ask me," Neji mumbled. Ino heard this load and clear, as did everyone else. She quickly got behind Neji with a pair of large scissors in her hand held against Neji's precious brown hair, very close to the roots.  
"I'm sorry, what was that? Didn't quite catch it!" she said with a sweet smile, though her eyes were blazing. "I worked very hard to create something like that, and I love feedback, you know." Now Ino was getting read to chop of his hair.  
"No!! Please, don't chop it off, I beg of you! Don't do it!" Neji cried. Sakura sighed.  
"Don't torture him, Ino. It isn't worth it." Ino put the scissors in her back pocket and backed away from Neji. Neji was no sobbing, stroking his hair saying,  
"Don't worry, you guys, you are not going to get the snip. I promise!"  
Everyone had the "WTF?!" look on their face.  
"So…what is Sasuke going to look like?" Naruto questioned aloud, forgetting about Neji and his hair issues. An evil grin crept onto Ino and Sakura's faces. Sasuke's eyes widened and he put his hands out in front of him defensively.  
"Oh, no! There is no way you guys are giving ME a makeover! That will happen only when hell freezes over!" he said. Shikamaru saw the looks on the girls faces, and quickly jumped in front of Sasuke, seeing what was about to happen.  
"Okay, now, before the two of you go and—experiment—on Sasuke, how about this. We guys give him his new look?" he suggested. Ino raised him an eyebrow.  
"And what makes you think you know how?" she challenged. Shikamaru thought for a moment.  
"Let's see…. Naruto and Neji can figure out his new look, while Lee supervises them, and I'll perform the troublesome transformation. You can relax, Ino. I learned from you," he said. Ino gave some thought to his sudden proposal.  
"Fine. But Hinata is going with you to make sure you don't do anything stupid."  
Shikamaru secretly glanced at Naruto and quickly caught at what Ino was getting at. Those two needed to be together before they had to separate for who knows how long.  
"Fine. We'll be back soon." And with that, all the guy and Hinata were gone.

A little while latter Hinata and the guys reappeared. Sakura and Ino turned away from what they were doing and looked right at Sasuke.  
"Oh-"  
"My-"  
"Gosh!" they said in unison.  
Sasuke's was still pale, but not as pale. His once jet-black hair was a lighter shade of black. He still had bangs, but they were cut three inches shorter. From that point, the hair gradually became longer, ending in slightly choppy ends a little above mid neck. Plus, he had a little more meat on his bones, filling him out better. (Not steroids!) Naruto spoke up first.  
"Now, before you make ANY judgments, you need to know this. There were so many looks we could have given him, but he was being stubborn and turned them all down. So it was either this, or force him into a spandex jumpsuit with a bowl cut."  
"Well, I don't know about you Sakura, but I like it!" Ino said. Sakura gave only Sasuke a small smile. She had to admit. He looked . . . hot! Then she remembered.  
"We need to make our fake names," she said blankly. "Then add a profile background, in case they happen to ask, and—"  
"Whoa, Sakura! Relax, will you?" Sasuke interrupted. "How about we decide that on our way to the Akatsuki headquarters, alright?" Sakura pondered this idea for a moment.  
"Fine, but I would highly recommend that we start getting some ideas-now!"

Before the trio was about to head off, Ino and Sakura passed out to everyone a necklace with a purple crystal as a pendant on it.  
"What is this?" Lee asked.  
"It is a dream finder," Sakura answered. All the guys looked at her like she was on mental drugs. She heaved an exasperated sigh. "Okay, long story short, these charms will make us communicate with each other in our sleep—but only when we are wearing them. That way, if a problem occurs, we will be able to discuss it as a group." The others gave her sand Ino and "oh" sound, showing that they somewhat understood. Ten minutes later, the trio was about ready to go. Sasuke and Sakura were just waiting for Naruto and Hinata to finish up.  
"Please don't go and get yourself killed, alright?"Naruto pleaded softly. Hinata cocked her head to the side and gave him a reassuring smile.  
"Don't worry. I am going to be fine. You will see," she said. She gave him one last hug, and went to join the other two.  
"See you in your dreams!" Sakura said with a laugh.  
And with that, they took off


	13. Akatsuki

Hinata estimated that it would take them a few hours to reach the headquarters. By the time about twenty minutes had gone by, each ninja had already come up with a name and background of who they were going to be as an Akatsuki.  
**Hinata :** Hyuga from Konoha. She left when she was young to the Tea Country. She had abandoned the Tea Country when she was 17. Her new name is Chyio Hyuga.  
**Sasuke :** No one is sure of where he originated. He was raised in the Sound Village. Became a rouge (sp) ninja four years ago. New name is Tasano  
**Sakura :** Raised in Ice Country; worked of an underground force trying to over through village neighbors. Worked with Chyio Hyuga for a little over two years, met up with Tasano one year later. New name: Tiashi Mortaraka.

Now they were standing on a hilltop, watching over the headquarters from a bird's eye view. Sasuke spoke up.  
"Okay, we're here. The question is, how do we become members? It's not like we can just walk in," he said. His voice was different—a little bit lower than his usual voice. Hinata slowly turned around, a kunai in her hand. Her voice was bored, perfectly covering her nervousness.  
"You can come out now—there is no point in hiding." From the bushes that were behind them, a man stepped out. He was a little tan, with silky blonde hair. Half of it was in a high ponytail, the other half hanging limply over his face. If Sakura didn't know better, she _might_ have mistaken him for a very strange looking woman. There was a mocking smirk on his face.  
"So, you three want to join Akatsuki, un?" he said, walking towards them. Once he was close enough, he snapped his fingers. The next thing they knew, they were all standing at the end of a white hall. In front of them stood a white door, also white. Sakura took notice of the big 'A' written in dark red.  
"My name's Deidara, by the way," he said. He turned slowly towards the door. Bringing his hand up ever so slowly, the man knocked once on the door, too softly to be even heard from the other side, and yet—  
"What is it? What do you want?" someone yelled rather rudely. Deidara cringed back slightly from the sudden outburst. After asking a deep breath to calm him enough, Deidara answered.  
"We have three rouge ninja who wish to become members of the organization. Two female, one male. They look promising," he added slyly. There was a slight pause.  
"Fine then. Deidara, you know the drill. I'll watch from here." Deidara then motioned for the newcomers to follow him down more levels of stairs and through the winding halls. He was also the first to start some conversation.  
"So, what are your names, un," he asked casually. Sasuke answered first.  
"I'm Tasano. This is Chyio Hyuga and Tiashi Mortaraka." Deidara suddenly became interested.  
"Hyuga, you say. You from the Leaf, un?" He had a tone of suspicion in his voice.  
"Unfortunately, yes," Hinata snarled. "I left the village years ago. It was boring and I wasn't learning much because the entire clan was so interested in the powerful Neji. So I lived in the Tea Country for a while, but I left that place, too."  
"Hmm. Interesting. And what about you two, un?" Sasuke and Sakura gave Deidara their 'stories'. He believed them easily.  
"So, where are you taking us?" Sakura questioned.  
"The kitchen, where everyone else is, or should be." He opened the door, and ushered them inside. It was the biggest kitchen Sakura had ever seen with an island in the middle.  
"Hey, guys, look! Potential members, un!" All of a sudden, Sasuke, Sakura and Hinata were being shuffled outside where some of the training grounds were. Once there, the trio was facing the entire Akatsuki-which wasn't too big to begin with. Deidara stepped forward away from the group. "Okay, so here is how it goes. Each of you will fight one of us in a 5 minute spare. Then, you will be sent back up to see Leader for some questions. Then he will decide if you are worthy of becoming part of the Akatsuki. Any questions, un?"  
"Who will we be sparing with?" Sasuke asked.  
"We decide that," Itatchi said out of nowhere. He walked up and stood next to Deidara. "And I think I will fight . . . you."  
He looked right at Sakura.  
Sasuke mentally cursed.  
He and Hinata went and joined the other men at the sidelines. Itatchi walked out and stood several yards across from Sakura.  
"Go, un!"  
Since Itatchi didn't make the first move, Sakura did. He was deflecting all of her attacks effortlessly. She tried everything that would normally work, but there was just one problem.  
_ 'I have to get around that stupid Sharingan of his! But how?'_ Sakura looked around.  
"So that's how it's going to be," she mumbled, jumping high in the air. She then turned upside-down and came spinning down to the ground like a screw, her fist out in front of her. The moment she made contact with the earth beneath her, it shattered into pieces tinier than grains of sand, leaving a huge crater in the middle of the area.  
And Itatchi was in the center of it.  
Sakura could swear that for one pure millisecond there was shock on his face, but as quickly as it came, it was replaced by the same, stoic expression that the Uchiha brothers shared. Sakura then disappeared and then reappeared several times in a well thought out pattern meant to confuse her opponent. After a few minutes with continuing her tactic and gaining incredible speed along with it, she finally saw an opening. When snuck up behind Itatchi, gathered chakra in her hand, and struck him hard in the lower back, right where a pressure point was. She had learned long ago that when this spot was struck, the victim was completely paralyzed for two long seconds. Sakura took this time to her great advantage. She put her fingers over her eyes and sent forceful waves of a secret medic's chakra into the pupils of his eyes. Itatchi cried out in pain, and jumped far back from where Sakura was, putting his hands over his eyes while bent over slightly. Sakura stayed where she was, a smirk slowly making its way across her face. Everyone watching the match glanced at Itatchi. When he removed his hands, they all silently gasped.

His Sharingan was gone.

After a moment, Itatchi squinted his eyes only a little. This made Sakura chuckle.  
"Without your Sharingan activated, you are legally blind. Although I'm not really surprised; I've heard that this happens when you use an excessive amount of Sharigan over the years. Only rumors, but still; it can only make one wonder. So I tried a little trick of my own to see if those silly rumors are true. I guess they aren't so silly anymore." Sasuke took a mental note of all of this. Then the unexpected happened. Itatchi raised his hand in the air, showing that he is done.  
"You win," he said dryly. And with that, he was gone. Sakura stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what just happened. He. . . gave up? That was something she really didn't expect to happen. She felt her new white hair whip at her face in the wind. She turned towards Deidara as he strolled towards her.  
"So. . . . Now what happens?" she asked.  
"You go up to have a chat with Leader. His room is on the third level, furthest door to the southwest. It has the big A on it, remember?" Sakura gave him a curt nod.  
"Yeah, I remember." And with that, she headed off to Leader's.


	14. Leader

As Sakura headed up to Leader's "den" (as Kisame had put it), she felt an odd presence behind her. Sakura stopped walking and sighed.  
"I may not know who you are, but at least I know that you are there. Show yourself." She turned her head around, expecting to see someone there, but saw nothing. Sakura turned her head back around was met with an icy red glare. She would have jumped from the sight, but knew better.  
"Got your little Sharingan back, I see? Itatchi." She added a small hint of mocking in her voice. He gave her a smirk. She could tell he was because his cloak wasn't buttoned up all the way.  
"Hn."  
_Wow. Just like Sasuke_, she thought. Sakura rolled her eyes and started to walk off to her destination, but was stopped. She looked down and noticed that he had a tight grip on her elbow.  
"Let go. Now," she growled. She only frowned down at her.  
"No, I have a few questions for you."  
"Oh, yeah? Well so does your leader. And I don't know about you, but I think his questions are more important at the moment." As saying this, she ripped her arm from his grasp and stalked off.  
Sakura finished her way to the leader's room and stood at the door. She took in the big 'A' she had noticed earlier. It was slightly brown at the edges. Sakura took a closer look at it.  
_Blood,_, she thought. As she raised her hind to knock on the door, the first thing she heard was,  
"Come in."  
Sakura slowly opened the door and walked inside.  
"Now close the door," the male voice whispered slowly. Sakura obeyed. The room was almost pitch black; had it not been for the small window on her far right, she wouldn't have been able to see Leader's silhouette. He was still so far back from the shred of light that that was all she could see of him.  
"Name," he grunted.  
"Tiashi Mortaraka," she stated.  
"Well, Tiashi, I saw your spar against Itatchi. How odd, he isn't the type to fight for unless necessary." Sakura now felt somewhat anxious to hear what she had to say about her performance in the clearing. "I noticed that he—gave up. Now why is that, do you think? People like yourself don't normally scare him off like that."  
"He left the match after I temporarily deactivated his Sharingan," she answered casually. Sakura felt the tiniest bit of pride inside for such an action, because they both knew that this wasn't a casual thing.  
"You deactivated his Sharingan?"  
"yes, sir. Is there a problem with that?" she questioned. She heard a low chuckle. It kind of creeped her out a bit.  
"No, no. not at all. Now, tell me. What else are you capable of?" he asked. Sakura thought for a moment on what she could say.  
"Well, I am an expert as a medical ninja," she stated.  
"Really? Well, in that case—" he tossed Sakura a cloak "—welcome to Akatsuki. Now, get out of my sight," he grumbled rudely. Sakura held the items in her arms and exited the room. As she was half way back to the training grounds, she saw Hinata walking her way. She called out to her.  
"Hey, how'd it go?"  
"I had to fight Kisame. What's the leader like?"  
"Strange. He seems to be the kind with little patience; compared to everyone I've met in life. Plus, he's a rude dick." Hinata gave a short nod.  
"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind," she muttered. Hinata continued her way to Leader's, while Sakura walked off in the direction Hinata came from. Before Sakura walked outside, she draped the cloak on her body. She looked over herself and smiled. The cloak was roomy and comfortable. She also adored how it gave her a mysterious era. Sakura opened the door and headed out to where the other Akatsuki men were. They turned away from the now-ending battle between Sasuke and some guy with a plant for a head and looked at Sakura. Some of them raised an eyebrow, while others smirked in approval. By this time, Sasuke had won (of course), and was heading over to join the others around Sakura.  
"You look kind of sexy, now!" Sakura stared at the man who had spoken. She gave him a slight death glare.  
"And…..you are?"  
"That would be Hidan," a female voice said. Sakura turned towards it and saw a woman with purple-ish blue hair with a white, paper lily in it. She had a bored look on her pale face. "I'm Konan. This is Hidan, like I said, Deidara, Kisame, Zetsu, Tobi, Kakuzu, and you already met Itatchi. But don't worry about the names; you'll soon realize that you can identify them by the fact that each one of them here is morally corrupt in their own, special way."  
"Hey!" all the men yelled. Sakura inwardly giggled. This mission might turn out to be fun.


	15. Breakfast

Okay, remember people, they got extreme makeovers, so they look different!

**TWO MONTHS LATER**

Sakura woke up feeling tired and a bit worn. She and Hinata had returned from a three-day mission late last night. They were to retrieve an ancient artifact from the Land of Rice Patties and kill anyone who truly got in their way. They only had to kill a few people, though they wished they hadn't needed to kill at all. But the men had it coming to them, as Leader would have it, after they reported to him after their return.  
Sakura sat up and looked around her room. On the third day there, Deidara had offered each of them to decorate their rooms. Sakura's had black walls with light and dark Sakura petals everywhere, different sizes. On the wall opposite her bed was a huge petal with a kunai sticking through it. She didn't know why, but she liked the look of the kunai going through the petal. It looked kind of cool.  
She also remembered that Hinata had her room painted a moonlight color with a waterfall on one wall that appeared to be glowing. Sasuke had only asked for plain black walls (which disappointed the artist greatly). Sakura walked over to her nightstand and brushed out her long, white hair. She still wasn't used to how different it felt to have long hair after having it short for such a long time. Plus, for once, it wasn't pink. She missed her normal hair. Sakura changed out of her pajamas and donned her new baggy black jeans and a lime green sleeveless shirt that loosely fit onto her body, still showing of her curves.  
Sakura and Hinata and long ago gone out and bought a new wardrobe for themselves. Sakura was a semi punk and Hinata was the non-snobby prep-like kind of person now. After applying eye-makeup, Sakura walked down two flights of stairs to the kitchen. When she got there, she noticed that some of the Akatsuki were already there at the large, wooden table eating their breakfast. But what really caught her attention was Tobi, under the table, being kicked by Deidara, who was saying,  
"No, Tobi, I _will not_ butter your muffin!" And then Tobi was yelling,  
"AH!! Deidara, please! Tobi is a good boy!" Sakura could only chuckle at the scene as she took her seat next to Deidara and the disguised Sasuke. Tobi quickly got out from under the table and faced Sakura.  
"Good morning, Tiashi!"  
"Moring, Tobi," she replied. Sakura took a plate from the middle of the table and started filling it with food. She paused when she noticed Itatchi staring at her. Sakura gently set down her plate and glared at him.  
"What?" she asked rudely. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked between Itachi and Sakura/Tiashi, interested in the sudden potential drama about to happen.  
"For a girl, you sure do eat a lot," he said plainly. While some men had their mouths hanging open, others choked on whatever food they had in their mouth; everyone was shocked at the eldest Uchiha's words.

Sakura's glare, if possible, deepened.

"What was that?" she growled.  
"Did I stutter? I said that for a girl, you eat a lot. Most girls I've come across are overly concerned about their looks and their body, so they eat very little. You on the other hand, eat everything in front of you, like there's no tomorrow."  
Sakura, of course, was angry, but was well with covering it up.

She got out of her chair and stood up, where everyone could see her. Then she walked over and stood in front of her new critic. She spread her arms out wide, making her shirt fit more tightly around her body.  
"Alrighty, then, Itachi; take a look at my body. Take a good, long look. Now you tell me, do you think I should be concerned about how my body is at all? No? Didn't think so. And besides, you shouldn't be talking, in my opinion."  
"Oh and why is that?" he asked calmly."  
"Because you don't eat too much, either. And since you always wear your Akatsuki cloak, you could be completely out of shape and the rest of us would ever know." Itachi closed his eyes and stood up. He unbuttoned his cloak and let it fall to the ground.  
He was wearing black, baggy sweat pants (A.N. and the Rebox with the straps! Sorry, it was in the moment!). His shirt was also black and you could just barely see the chest muscles he had.  
But, of course, with Itachi being Itachi, he wasn't finished.

He then slowly, and on purposely, took off his shirt.

Now Sakura could feel a heavy blush starting to come on her neck and cheeks. Itatchi's chest was chiseled just perfectly with an eight-pack to go along. His biceps were big, but not too big that they looked gross. When he had taken his shirt off, some of the hair in his low ponytail had come out and was now framing his face and laying on his chest and shoulders.  
Then he started to walk over to Sakura. He came up to her and left no more than a foot between their bodies.  
"Now, tell me." He used his index finger to left her chin up to force her to look him in the eyes. "Do you think I'm out of shape? Be honest," he said, annoyed.  
_**Control yourself, Sakura! Don't you DARE give into hormones! **_her inner shouted. Sakura quickly took the blush off of her face and smirked.  
"Well, honestly-" She stood on her tip-toes so that her lips lightly brushed against his ear when she talked. "-your body is alright, but your breath leaves much to be desired," she whispered. Sakura stepped back and looked at his face. And although no one else could see it, she saw the faintest shade of pink running across his cheeks. She just had to smirk from the sight.  
Sakura grabbed her plate and walked outside with it. She often did this-eat outside-because she could get some peace and quiet. It was a cool, summer morning. She went and sat under one of the many trees surrounding the headquarters; this one was one of her favorites.

* * *

It was a Weeping Cherry tree. Pink petals hung down everywhere, red cherries dotted against the pink. It looked perfect against the light blue sky.  
She leaned against the trunk of the tree and started to eat one of her cinnamon rolls, savoring the taste.  
"Hey." Sakura looked over to see Sasuke coming her way. His black/brown hair was slightly tousled from the wind and his hands were buried in his pockets.  
"Yo," she greeted after swallowing. Sasuke sat down across from her on the soft, lush-green grass. They sat there in silence for what seemed like a blissful eternity. The wind started up again, so Sakura pulled her long white hair back into a sloppy, loose bun. The same way her mother wore it from the picture from the festival of life: bangs down with a chin-length lock of hair on both sides of her face. Sakura then caught Sasuke staring at her.  
"What?"  
"Nothing, it's just….never mind," he mumbled. Sakura sighed. She put down the food she was eating and looked at her friend.  
"What is it, Tasano?" she asked impatiently. Sasuke seemed to be having a bit of an internal conflict with himself.  
"It's just…it's hard not to stare with your hair up like that." Sakura's eyes widened a bit.  
"Why does it look bad, or-"  
"No! No. You're pretty….is all." Sakura looked away in slight embarrassment. Sasuke chuckled softly.  
"Now what is it?"  
"The roots of your highlights were green when I said that." His face hardened suddenly. "They were all dark green when Itachi was giving you his strip tease," he mumbled. Sakura set her empty plate beside her.  
"Okay, first off, that was not a strip tease, and are you….jealous? Of him?!" Sasuke looked around quickly then scooted up beside Sakura so he was sitting next to her. He looked around again and put his mouth up to her ear.  
"I haven't seen you blush that hard since I left for my mission with Neji. It just shocked me a bit that he had to be the one to bring it back. For all I know and with how you are, you might start getting feelings for him." Sasuke's words were whispered just all too hotly in Sakura's ear. It had all turned her breathing slightly uneven, and her heart was sputtering hyperactively. She quickly put a hand over where her heart was and took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself down.  
"Are you okay?" Sasuke asked innocently. (He honestly didn't know what was going on) Sakura turned her glare to him.  
"Next time, warn me before you do something like that! I don't know how you were able to do it, but I haven't felt like this in years, simply because some guy went and whispered in my ear!" Sasuke was silent for a moment. Then a smirk slowly made its way into his handsome features.  
"Oh"—he ran his finger up and down her arm in a slow motion as he spoke into her ear again—"you mean like _this_? Does this, or I, make you nervous?"  
Sakura was getting all of the same reactions as before except stronger. Not only that, but she had started to tremble and her vision was spinning out of focus. Sakura abruptly stood up, grabbed her plate, and ran back inside, leaving a confused Sasuke where he was.

* * *

**A/N Hey everyone!! I just wanted to thank you for continueing to read this story! I know I have been spelling Itachi's name wrong, so forgive me. I will be uplaoding a bit more often 'cause summer is coming and I will have a bit more time on my hands! If you have any questions or concerns, put it in a review or PM me anytime! If you haven't already done so, go to my page and read _Silent Movie_.**

**So review and tell me what you think of this chapter!**


	16. Realization

**AN: sorry I haven't udated in a while...been kida busy.**

After putting her breakfast dishes in the sink, Sakura went straight up to her room. Once the door was locked, she walked over and opened a window, feeling the cool breeze on her face. She sighed while the thought ran through her head.  
_'Get it together, Sakura! You are in the middle of one of the most important of your life! You won't-no, can't- go and fall for him again.'  
b'Who ever said you got over him from the first time?'_  
'Oh, you just shut up! The last thing I need right now is for you to pop up!!'  
**'Admit it, you still love him!'**  
'Do not.'  
**'Do to! Sakura, you loooooooovvvvve him!' **  
'No, I don't. I am strong. Getting feelings for someone now will only weaken me and cloud my better judgment.'  
Sakura put her hand under her chin and stared out her window, pushing her inner to another part of the recesses of her mind. For once, there was silence; and it was peaceful. After a few minutes, Sakura could hear someone unlocking her door with chakra. She didn't try to stop them, though; she already knew who it was.  
"Everything okay? You seem kind of down this morning," a familiar voice sounded.  
"Morning, Chyio. No, I don't think I am doing to good right now; I've got a lot on my mind at the moment." Hinata came over and sat across from Sakura on the window sill.  
"Anything you want to talk about?" she asked. Sakura looked at her ten sighed.  
"It's just"—she lowered her voice for only the two to hear"—I think I might be getting feelings for Tasano again." Hinata giggled.  
"No, there is another thing; I have a bad feeling that I might get feelings for Itatchi, too—if I don't watch myself, that is. But you and I both know why that can't happen for two reasons: one, because of what he did, and two, because of who is currently related to him!" she said under her breath. Hinata looked around real quick, and came closer to Sakura.  
"Okay, I am going to explain more tonight, but I have something BIG to tell you about Itatchi and his clan." Sakura gave her a short nod.  
Together, they walked out to the open grounds to do some sparing, both waiting anxiously for night to come.

* * *

**LATER THAT NIGHT, IN THE DREAM CHARMS…**

"Hey, good to see you all again!" Lee shouted. Everyone was using their crystal dream charms; they were gathered in a gathering place that looked like one in the village—it looked a lot like a night club. They were all seated at a round table in the corner of the club big enough for all of them.  
"So, how are things going as S-class criminals?" Naruto asked. Sasuke slapped him in the back of the head  
"Dobe," he muttered. "Slow, though it seems as though we've gained their almost everyone's trust." Everyone nodded. Sasuke then put back the scowl on his face.  
"What's his problem?" Ino asked. Sakura sighed with annoyance.  
"Oh, he's just holding a grudge on what happened this morning," she answered. Everyone looked at Sasuke, wanting to hear about it. He gave in to their staring.  
"She let Itatchi give her a strip tease," he said, giving Sakura a glare. Sakura returned the gesture.  
"Okay, first off, that was not a strip tease. And second, if I had told him to stop, it would have made me look like I couldn't handle something as miniscule as that! And if you find that as a problem, I—"  
"Can the two of you settle your relationship issues later so we can get on to business?" Shikamaru questioned, rather annoyed. The two bickering ninja sat down with a 'huff' and waited for someone else to take over the awkward silence. Hinata suddenly cleared her throat. Everyone turned towards her.  
"Um, I have some things to say…" she said nervously. A bell went off is Sakura's head. It was then that she remembered that Hinata wanted to tell her and everyone else something tonight. "Okay, well, here it goes. Before we were assigned this mission, one of the Akatsuki had snuck into the village and murdered the entire Haruno clan." Everyone turned and stared at Sakura, who in turn remained impassive about the information. "Well, I received DNA samples from a reliable source and found two types: Haruno and Uchiha. After doing some more testing, I found out something interesting: the sample of Uchiha DNA…..wasn't Itatchi's, nor was it Sasuke's."  
There was a long, eerie silence; the kind that tells you something is about to happen, but you never know what it is until it has happened. Sakura sat there, thinking about all of the possibilities.  
It was an Uchiha's blood, which she knew. She also knew that Sasuke would _never_ do something like that her. Then, as Hinata clarified, it wasn't Itatchi's DNA, either, so that means………

Realization hit Sakura. As if in slow motion (in her point of view) all of the blood drained from her face, turning it into an unhealthy shade of pale. Her body became numb from the sudden burst of a mix of adrenaline and fear that was now coursing through her veins like the deadly winds of a hurricane. She leaned back into her seat and gripped the table edge to try and control her violent shaking, which she failed at.  
Fear had completely taken over and overwhelmed her system.  
Sakura took deep, slow breaths to try and calm down the erratic beating of her heart; it was worse than what Sasuke did to her this morning outside. Her eyes immediately snapped open and came back to reality when she felt a hand shaking her by the shoulder.  
"Sakura, what's wrong? Is everything alright?" Naruto asked. Sakura was so out of it, she could barely hear the worry in his voice and on everyone's faces-especially Sasuke's. She quickly and roughly shrugged his hand off of her. Reaching down, se grabbed the necklace and yanked it off her neck; taking her out of her sleep and waking her forcefully.  
Waking with a start she noticed that she was drenched in cold sweat. Sakura at up and pulled her legs up, hugging her knees to her chest. She rested her chin on her knees, allowing her show-white hair to drape itself over her bare arms, warming her slightly.  
"So it's true then, that he is alive," she whispered. _'And Madara Uchiha is the one who killed my clan.'_  
And then she cried.


	17. Art is a BANG!

Sakura and Hinata were standing at the island in the kitchen the next day, hushed in secret conversation. Most of the Akatsuki were off on missions, anyway, so they didn't have to worry too much about being eaves dropped on.

"So, you're sure that he is alive, and that he is the one who killed off your clan?" Hinata asked in a quiet whisper. Sakura shook her head.

"Not sure. But if he is alive, he could be anyone in the organization. From what I have read on the man, he was a master of disguise and trickery-that, I know for certain." Hinata gave Sakura a short nod of understanding. Then she pulled out a folded piece of paper from inside her cloak and unfolded, setting it between then for Sakura to see, too. It was a list of name of all the Akatsuki members.

"Alright, here is how we are going to try and find him: process of elimination. Check off the names of DNA samples that don't match the killer's DNA that we have until we get to one name. So, we can cross our names and Tasano's, too-" she lined out her, Sakura, and Sasuke's fake names "-and we can check off Itachi's name," she said, crossing off his name as well. Sakura let out a big sigh.

"Well, Chyio, looks like we've got our work cut out for us for a while," Sakura declared. Just then, Tobi came bursting through the door.

"AH!! Chyio, Tiashi! There you are." Said girls turned towards Tobi, confused.

"What is it, Tobi?"

"Deidara and Itachi are having a bit of a disagreement and they need your opinions." He grabbed the girls by their wrists and pulled them up to Deidara's bedroom. It was filled with blocks of clay.

"There you two are," he said when he noticed them, sounding a little relieved. "Now, Itachi here doesn't believe me when I say it, so I need your opinions to be sure and prove him wrong. I say that art is a bang; what do you think?" he asked.

Hinata rolled her eyes in an irritated fashion and walked out, muttering something about 'gay retards'. Sakura turned back towards the two men and thought silently for a moment.

"Well, I guess it depends on what kind of art it is that you are talking about."

"The kind Deidara uses in battle—the kind that explodes," Itachi said. Deidara nodded. Sakura's eyes lit up.

"Do you mean those cute little birds?" Deidara nodded again, smiling. "AH! I love those little things! They are just so cute and—" she noticed Itachi giving her a glare. "Art is forever," she concluded, and then she quickly sped out of the room. Once she was in the privacy of her own room, she burst out into a laughing fit.

"And what do you think _you_ are laughing at?" a cold voice asked. Sakura stopped her laughing and turned around to find Itachi leaning against her door frame, a scowl set on his face. Sakura easily mimicked his facial expression.

"Okay, first of all do you _know_ how to knock? And second, what do you want?"

"Why did you side with Deidara back there on the whole art thing? You can't really enjoy art that much, can you?" he asked in a monotone voice.

"You know Itachi, your life and personality just flat out sucks! It seems as though you don't enjoy anything life gives you; instead, you toss it out the window!"

"Hn." Now that got Sakura going.

"And another thing; you, like everyone else on the planet, were born with a vocabulary, but all you ever do in a conversation is give that stupid grunt! Do you have _any_ idea how annoying that gets after a while?" Itachi walked over to her until there were only a few feet in between them.

"Oh, please; if there's anyone in this house who is annoying, it's you. You are the first girl I've met that hasn't gone all fangirly over me. Now why is that?" Sakura put her hands on her hips in a defiant manner.

"_Hn_, well maybe I have feelings for someone else. Did you ever think about that?"

"Yes, I did. Which can't be right, because who here is better than me?"

"Wow, you ARE conceited! Tell me, do you ever think about anyone but yourself?" she questioned doubtfully. Itachi smirked slightly and walked even closer to her.

"Yes, I do," he brought his face so close to hers, their noses were touching. "I tend to think about _you_ a lot," he whispered hotly. And then he disappeared. Sakura growled in frustration.

"Stupid buttmonkey," she mumbled.

"Hey, now I know I can be a bit of a bastard at times, but that was just rude of you." Sakura turned around to face the figure in her window.

"Hey, Tasano. Where were you?"

"Leader had me send a message to some run-down village south a ways from here to one of the alliances. Si it just me, or have you and Chyio been getting all of the good missions lately?" The two walked over and sat across from each other on her bed. "I mean, seriously," he continued, "you got to kill someone on your last mission! Thumb war?" he offered, clearly going off topic. As they began their thumb war, Sakura spoke.

"Oh, please; we haven't been getting all of the 'good missions'. You are just blowing things out of proportion again."

"I do _not_ blow things out of proportion; that is something the dobe would do," he mumbled.

"He is not a dobe. You know that," she whispered. Sasuke snorted.

"Yes, he is." Sakura pulled his hand from his and used it to slap him across the face-_hard__._ A red imprint of Sakura palm was forming on his pale cheek. Sasuke's face remained where it was for a moment, and then slowly turned to face Sakura again. His glare was dark and menacing; Sakura didn't back down.

"What the _hell_ was that for?" he growled. Sakura shrugged in the I'm-innocent-but-not-really way.

"I dunno; maybe I just felt like it had to be done. You were ticking me off, so I solved the problem." Sasuke turned away and made a huff noise, glaring at the wall.

"You don't slap Itachi when _he_ annoys you…" Sakura heaved a heavy sigh.

"Would you like to see me slap him sometime?" she offered halfheartedly. Sasuke quickly turned his face to hers again; there was a smirk and evil glint in his eye.

"Would you?" he whispered.

"If it would make you happy….because I live to make you happy!" she said with sarcasm dripping from her words. Sasuke's smirk grew even wider.

"I know you do!" he replied smugly. Sakura looked over at the window and gasped silently.

"Oh, wow, it's dark out already?" she mumbled to herself. Sasuke noticed that changed in the sky also and got up, stretching.

"Hey, uh, could you do me a little favor?" Sakura stared at him, waiting for him to continue. "Where your crystal tonight when you go to bed; you'll see why when you do," he said simply. When he left her room, Sakura could only shake her head in confusion. She honestly had no clue as to what he was up to.

* * *

Sakura woke up feeling well rested: something she hadn't really felt too much since the whole mission started. She looked over at the clock on her nightstand; it read 10:30 A.M.

_'I slept in?'_she thought.

"Good morning, sleepy-head!" Hinata greeted cheerfully from the open door of her bedroom. Hinata walked in and sat on the edge of Sakura's bed. "You slept in," she noted. Sakura gave her a look.

"Doesn't anyone remember how to knock anymore before entering?" she growled. Hinata giggled.

"Sorry, I got curious."

"Why?"

"Well, Tasano woke up late also, and when he came down for something to eat, he had this look on his face like he had just acquired the greatest thing in the world; of course he hid most of the expression. Now why do you think that is?" she asked expectantly. Sakura smiled, holding up her dream crystal for Hinata to see. Hinata silently gasped. "Don't tell me, did you two…..go on

A dream date?" Sakura could only smile sheepishly in response. "Oh my gosh; how did it go, what did you do?" Sakura sat up and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Not too much, but it was still more than enough! Since it was inside a dream everything was perfectly perfect! We took a walked around a clear blue lake, sat on a hill and watched an incredible sunset, and then we talked about things while watching the stars. Chyio, it was the greatest night I have had in the longest of times!"

"I am happy for you; truly, I am. Did he kiss you?" she asked eagerly. Sakura frowned slightly.

"Well, no; it seemed like he was about to, though. It was like he was about to at one point, but then quickly decided against it."

"Wait, did you want him to? It's okay if you do, though," Hinata said. Sakura hesitated for a moment, thinking about her friend's words.

"Honestly, I am not sure. I mean, one part of me wants to be with him; the other part just keeps saying "stay away! Focus on your career! Don't let your emotions cloud your better judgment!" Chyio, I just don't know what part of me to side with! What do you think I should do?" Hinata merely shrugged.

* * *

**Hey, people! I know it's summer, and I should be updating more, but I've had softball like, four days a week and day camp everyday (not weekends). So I haven't had the time I'd been hoping for-I still need to practice my piano assingments!**

**I feel proad of myself! I made Sakura slap Sasuke!**

**Sasuke: glares And that would be a good thing because?**

**Sakura: Because it is! sticks tongue out**

**See ya's!**


	18. All good things must come to an end

**I don't own Naruto. If I did, the manga wouldn't be so depressing right now.**

Sakura's heart dropped slightly, but she kept her composer.

"Hey, was your younger brother trained by Orochimaru?" she asked 'curiously'. She had to keep up the act of not knowing everything about Sasuke.

"Yes, why?"

"Well, he doesn't talk much about his past with Chyio and I, but I do know that Tasano was raised in Sound for a good part of his life. One of Orochimaru's potential vessels, Kimimaru, trained Tasano for a long time. When he died, Tasano watched some of the higher-ranked Sound ninja train; some of time he watched Kabuto and possibly Orochimaru himself. He picked up a lot of moves from observing others. Once he felt that he knew enough, he left the Sound Village and set out on his own."

"Then he met up with you and Chyio?" he questioned. Sakura gave him a nod while still watching the fight outside. "And you? Where did you learn all of your moves?" he asked indifferently.

"Well, for a while, I taught myself some basic medical nin jutsus before I left the village I was staying in. Once I set out on my own, survival just came naturally to me. When I got together with Chyio, she was able to retrieve books from the Leaf Village about all you can do with just your chakra; both with fighting and medical jutsu. Tasano joined us about a year or two later. It's indescribable how much he was able to teach me. Why do you ask?" she asked with a hint of suspicion in her voice. Itachi seemed to be deliberating with himself.

"You…..interest me," he answered slowly.

"I-what?" Okay, now she was confused.

"Hn; I don't like to repeat myself," he stated. Sakura snorted.

"You are so weird," she mumbled while walking outside. Deidara and Sakura had just ended their sparing match; it turned out to be a tie.

"Tiashi, I need your help on some things," Sasuke said. Sakura quickly nodded greetings to Deidara as he walked away, then turning to Sasuke.

"Well, I'll do what I can; what do you need?"

"Walk with me for a moment." They walked for about ten minutes to a clearing out of sight from the house. When they got to the center of the clearing, Sasuke turned around, pulling out a kunai in the process. "I wanted to see how well I stood against a professional medic such as you." Sakura readied herself into a fighting stance.

"You just got out of a sparring match-oh well, you'll be sorry."

"Hn, we'll see about that," he said with a smirk.

Sasuke used his ninja speed to lunge at her to hit her with the kunai. Sakura pivoted out of the way, but not fast enough to miss the sensation of the wind forced from the sharp blade. She back flipped into the air and gathered chakra in the palm of her hand. As he came at her again, she blocked one of his attacks with the chakra filled hand, transporting it into his forearm. She could see the pain she inflected on him in his eyes, no matter how hard he tried to hide it; that only boosted her confidence. She tried to grab at him, but when she did he turned into a log.

_'A replacement technique?!' she thought. _Closing her eyes, she blocked out easily distracted senses and focused on her hearing abilities and her sixth sense. She could tell he was cloaking his chakra pretty well; she wasn't able to sense it. And then she also knew he was a master at slyness. Now all she had was her pure instinct to guide her.

Now all of her senses were open, and she could see every little thing in and surrounding the clearing. She ducked, dodging a shuriken. Opening her eyes, she watched how it seemed to turn in the air after missing its target. Knowing it would render pointless to try and _find_ him, she decided to hit the entire surrounding area.

Sakura summoned a mass amount into the tip of her pointer finger. She knelt down on the ground and quickly spun around in a circle, letting her finger tip graze the ground around her. With each spot her finger touched, the ground beneath it and beyond would disappear and fall into the earth, forming a crater around her after spinning 360 degrees; she was standing on a pole of earth with a ditch around her. Looking down, she saw Sasuke struggling to get up. She suppressed a giggle.

"How about we call it a tie for now and you won't go to sleep tonight beaten to a pulp!" she yelled from above him. He looked up at her and she watched him sigh and nod. She quickly used a special kind of jutsu to bring up the fallen soil.

"How the heck did you do that?!" he exclaimed. She smirked while walking over to him.

"I think I am the only person who can use chakra nature and light and dark chakra to recreate kekia genkia jutsus," she informed. She walked over to him and they both lie down on their backs on the grass. They were lying opposite each other where their bodies would be mirroring the other and their heads were next to each other. After a moment or two, Sasuke let out a small sigh.

"I knew you were strong, but that was…"

"Is that an attempt at a complement?" sakura asked disbelievingly but with a tone of playfulness.

"Possibly," he answered. "It depends on what you consider a complement," Sasuke said slyly. Sakura brought her hand up and slapped him on the side of the head. "What was that for, eh?!" Sakura sighed.

"Doesn't surprise me that you don't know what a complement is," she scoffed jokingly.

"Oh, I know what a complement is. The thing is, I just don't give them out too often."

"Why not?"

"Because there's no point."

"Do you mean to say that it's pointless to make someone feel good?"

"I'm saying that it's pointless because you'll give them a complement, but over time they'll just forget it." Sakura thought about his words for a moment.

"That's not entirely true. Chyio told me once that when she was younger, the…dobe…had given her a complement. To this day she remembers his exact words."

"Yeah, well, she's obsessed with him, so that's a terrible example," he muttered.  
The two fell silent once more. Sakura didn't know why, but for some reason, being her with Sasuke felt…..

Right.

When there was no one else around, and it was just the two of them, he always acted different. He was a little softer and acted less like he had a Popsicle up his butt. She was so content and in the moment, not wanting it end. She felt as if there was nothing wrong with the world when they were like this. It was a kind of inner peace that she wished would never leave.

Sakura felt Sasuke's finger tips running up and down her cheeks, just ever so lightly. She turned her head to the side and looked him in the eye. There was a ghost of a smile on the thin lips that adorned his handsome face.

Everything was perfect.

But, as the saying goes:

_All good things must soon come to an end_.

Sasuke pulled his hand back and stared at the sky. "Someone's coming," he whispered, almost inaudible.  
"Tiashi, un," Deidara called from the edge of the clearing. Sakura sat up and averted her gaze to the artist ninja. "Leader wants us for a mission pronto, un." Sakura then stood up. Before she started to leave, she heard a faint "good luck" come from Sasuke. And for some reason that beyond even her expanded knowledge, she didn't even as much as acknowledge him; though he knew perfectly well that she heard him.

As she walked away with Deidara to get more details on the mission, she was drained off all the happiness she had just felt when she was with Sasuke. It seemed that lately no matter what, no matter how happy and peaceful something-or someone-would make her, the Fates wouldn't let it last long. But they would keep one speck of that joyous feeling within her, as iff to tease and tourment her.

In conclusion, she sadly realized that she and Sasuke most likely won't last forever, like she had always dreamed of.

Because the Fates might not allow it.

* * *

**Yeah, a bit of a somewhat depressing ending. Okay, so here is some good news to make your day better: I have all of the chapters finished, as in finished with the story. I just hav to post them. I won't put them up at the same time, because that will be a bit too much at once. I am also starting my new story. It is called "Royal Blood". It's a vampire story. I'll give more details about it at the end of the next chapter! **

**If you all like me as an author, how about as an artist? Go to my page and there should be a link on my profile on how to get to my site!**


	19. Nightmare

"Let me help you with that, un." Sakura looked over to her right to see Deidara kneeling down next to her to help clean the blood off of her tools and medical instruments.  
"No, it's okay, you don't have to-" but Deidara had already started helping her out. Sakura tilted her head down and sighed in defeat. Together they started wiping off the sharp, medal objects.  
"Man, I have never seen so many injured allies in my life. I still can't believe you were able to handle them all; it was amazing, un!" Sakura laughed at his complement, slightly embarrassed.  
"Um, thanks." There were a few minutes of silence between the two.  
"So, Tiashi, what's going on between you and Tasano?" he asked slyly. Sakura reddened.  
"There's nothing going on," she answered too quickly. Deidara caught the lie.  
"Don't give me that; I saw the way he looked at you in that meadow."  
"You saw that!?" Deidara laughed sheepishly.  
"Yeah, I was sort of spying on you guys! But he looked like he wanted o kiss you—badly. But don't worry, I can keep a secret!" Sakura sat back and sighed deeply. "If it's an uncomfortable topic," he continued, "you don't have to tell me anything. I won't force it; I was just curious as to what was going on." Sakura smiled sadly as she put away the now clean medical tools.  
"Honestly Deidara, I don't know what's going on. He's been randomly sending me mixed signals for almost a year, now. One day he acts like he wants me, but then the next day he'll treat me like I'm nothing. You know, sometimes I wonder why I put up with him." Deidara was silent for a moment.  
"Do you love him, un?" he asked. That caught Sakura off guard. They got up and started running at top ninja speed back to the headquarters.  
"I-I don't know, really, I mean, maybe I do," she answered unsurely. Her face was beat red now. Deidara chuckled.  
"It's either yes or no, Tiashi, it can't be somewhere in between. Now, I'll ask again: Do you love Tasano, un?" he asked, emphasizing each word. Sakura remained silent with an irritated look on her face as they arrived back at headquarters. Deidara smirked knowingly. "I knew it; you love him, un!" Sakura turned her head away in defiance. "and since you love him, why bother fighting it now? It isn't going to hurt you, un." Sakura swiftly turned to him.  
"Yeah, sure. But if you tell ANYONE about this, imply in any way, or ANYTHING that I don't like, I'll turn your _insides out_! And you know perfectly well that I can," she threatened. Deidara put his hands out in front of him defensively.  
"Relax! I'm good at keeping secrets, un," he defended.  
"You better be." The two headed up to their own separate bedrooms. It was nearing midnight by the time she was in her room. She silently changed into her pajamas, which consisted of pink sweats with a drawstring and a thick white tank top. As she was about to climb into bed, she suddenly felt a rush of cold air. She turned to her window to see a figure crouching on the wind sill. The jumped into the room and walked over to Sakura.  
Sasuke.  
Sakura, already very tired, quickly became irritated. "Ever hear of a door?" she whispered harshly while crossing the room to close the window.  
"The window is more dashing," Sasuke retorted back. "I needed to tell you to wear your crystal tomorrow night; there's going to be a meeting."

**THE NEXT NIGHT**

Sakura entered the dream world, finding herself in walking into a green pasture. Since she was the first to fall asleep, she was the only one there for the moment. She sat down on the soft grass, wishing she had a guitar to play; then one appeared.  
"Hey, Forehead! I see you're in the mood for some music," Ino pointed out. "Well, so am I!" she got a guitar of her own, being an acoustic like Sakura's. they started playing an acoustic version of 'Misery Business', each taking turns singing, Sakura taking the back-up vocals at times. As the song went on, more people began to show up, making their way over to where the two girls were playing. By the time everyone was in the dream charm world, the song ended, earning the two girls a small applause from their small audience.  
"You two should make a band," Naruto suggested.  
"You know any drummers?" Ino asked jokingly. Lee's hand shot up in the air, determination in his eyes.  
"Oh! Yes, I am a drummer!!" Sakura giggled.  
"We were only kidding, Lee. Sorry," Sakura said. Lee's shoulders slumped down in disappointment.  
"Do you guys know any love songs?" Hinata asked.  
"Yes, why?" Hinata then held up her left hand. Everyone gasped.

On her hand, was an engagement ring.

Ino screamed. "You two are getting married!!" she ran over to then and hugged them both in delight. "Oh my gosh, I'm so ecstatic! You should totally have me help plan your wedding! And Sakura can play the music for your reception, and—"  
"INO!!" Sakura yelled. Ino looked at Sakura innocently.  
"What?"  
"First, you need to slow down and back off. Second, it's _their_ wedding, not yours, so let _them_ plan it for themselves. Jeez!" Ino sighed defeated.  
"Fine; but you two need to have her play at the wedding. Sakura knows all of the best love songs and party songs!"  
"Can we please talk about something else now, like the mission at hand?" Sasuke interrupted, getting irritated. Neji nodded in silent agreement. Shikamaru got on with the real purpose of the meeting.  
"Okay, people; I just received a message from Lady Tsunade saying that we only have less than two weeks left to complete this mission-she doesn't even want us to take that long to finish it up. Sasuke, Hinata, Sakura, do the three of you have Akatsuki's complete and total trust?" The three ninja nodded their heads. "Good. Then I say we attack in five days. Anyone got a problem with this?" No one spoke. "I'm taking that as a 'no' then. Alrighty, then; I've said everything needed to be said. We will meet again the night before the attack for further details." Everyone then got up and went off in different directions to go into their own dreams.  
Sakura walked on through the pasture. After about ten minutes, the green scenery changed around her into that of the edge of a small beach. Sakura sat on the shoreline and peered out over the perfectly blue waters. She watched as two seagulls flew above her over and along the shoreline. They seemed like they were most likely looking for some crabs to eat. The young girls giggled-the things she dreamt of never ceased to surprise her. Taking in more of her surroundings, she noticed something: she could see parts of everyone else's dreams, too. They were distant and were like a blurred moving picture, shaped as a blob, just floating in midair. It seemed that Naruto and Hinata were on a dream date (no pun intended); Ino was in a beauty pageant; Lee was in a competition against Gai; Shikamaru was-sleeping; and ten there was Neji…. Dreaming of TenTen in a bikini. Then she saw another blob that was almost pitch black.

_Sasuke._

Curious, she made her way over to the entrance of his dream. Peering inside, she could faintly hear screaming. He was having a nightmare. Sakura stepped inside, being sucked into the dark mind of her fellow shinobi. Her surroundings changed from the calm beach to that of the entrance to the Uchiha District; probably around midnight. Now that she was actually in the dream, the screams were much loader. They were unusually bloodcurdling, sending chills of fear up Sakura's spine. Taking a deep breath, she charged through the open gates and into the compound. She had been in the real one only a few times, but that was enough to know what was where.  
Everywhere she went, there were dead bodies, just recently slaughtered. Bodies of Uchiha's. it was immediately after this thought that she realized that Sasuke was reliving the horrifying memory of the clan massacre. The closer Sakura came to the center of the compound, the more distinct the smell of blood was. She was still running through the blood-stained streets, looking for her friend. As she turned a corner, she froze. In the center of the street was a small boy—a small Sasuke—crying. Before him was the clan killer. The younger Itachi walked slowly towards Sasuke, katana raised high. Little Sasuke made no attempt to move, but only cried hard, if possible.  
With her instincts taking over her system, Sakura bolted from where she was standing and sprinted for Sasuke. She leaped forward and shoved out of the way before the katana came down. The moment she made contact with him, though, Sasuke's nightmare quickly disappeared and they were brought back into Sakura's dream, out of the haunting memory. Sakura was lying on top of the older, current Sasuke. Said boy opened his eyes and gazed up at the girl above him.  
"Sakura?" They both got into a sitting position. Sasuke pulled Sakura into a tight embrace and buried his face in her soft, pink hair. Sakura wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest.  
"It's okay to cry, you know, Sasuke," she whispered. And before she knew it, he was sobbing. As an attempt to comfort him, Sakura ran her hands up and down his back in a slow, relaxing rhythm.  
"It's okay; it wasn't real, only a nightmare," she cooed soothingly. Sasuke found her voice calming.  
"It felt just as real as the real thing," he admitted. This one dream really affected him, and he couldn't gain back control of his emotions. They lay back onto the warm sand, side by side, holding hands. Sakura had unconsciously started to run her thumb lightly over his knuckles; it relaxed him slightly.'  
"Sasuke, even though I'll never know how this must feel for you—"  
"What are you talking about?" Sasuke interrupted. "You clan was killed, too."  
"Well, yes, but it wasn't done by a family member, and I didn't witness it. What you went through is so much worse. I just want you to know that no matter what happens, I'll always be right there beside you, whenever you need me. You know that, don't you?"  
Sasuke turned his body towards her and he cupped her cheek in his hand. "I do now," he whispered while looking into her eyes. And with that said, her pulled her face towards his and captured her lips, claiming them as his own. His lips moved slowly against hers, almost uncertainly—though he would later say _safely_, because he is _never_ uncertain about _anything_. His hand moved from Sakura's cheek to the back of her neck. He tilted her head to get a better angle in the kiss, and so he deepened it. Swiftly, he pulled the girl on top of him, on hand still on her neck, the other holding her down by wrapping the arm around her waist (which oddly fit perfectly around her, but he was probably going kooky from his bold move). Sakura had put her hands on his well-built chest and ran her fingers over his stomach, feeling his defined muscles.  
After what seemed like eternity, Sasuke pulled back and laid her back beside him. Sakura turned her head and propped herself up n one elbow.  
"Sasuke…..why did you..?" Sasuke could only shrug.  
"I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later," he responded quietly, smirking. Sakura giggled at his Sasuke-ness and playfully hit him on the arm.  
Suddenly, the scenery started to blur and break around them, like losing a signal on a TV screen. Sakura gave Sasuke a sad smile.  
"I guess it's time for me to wake up," she said quietly.  
"Will you come back here tomorrow night?" Sasuke asked, sitting up. Sakura thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Good." Simultaneously, they took off their dream charms.


	20. Which one is reality?

Sakura opened her eyes to try and find out why she had woken up. There was a banging on her door—and it was only 4 in the morning. Slowly, she got out of bed—while muttering profanities of whoever had woke her up—and went to answer the door. She swung open the door to see Kisame…who was sweating and looked like a total wreak.

"There had better be a really good reason for waking me at this hour," she growled lowly. After gulping, Kisame spoke.

"You're a medic, right?" She had then suddenly become more alert.

"Yes, why?"

"Something is wrong with Itachi; I think you better come check it out." Kisame quickly led Sakura to Itachi's bedroom. The door was already open. They walked in to see some others already in there: Pein, Deidara, Hidan, and Tobi.

"Get out of the way!" The others moved to the sides of the room. She found Itachi doubled over, hands balled into tight fists that were over his eyes. "Who here knows what happened?" she asked out loud.

"I was training my Sharingan," Itachi whispered. "I was…perfecting a new jutsu with it… that's all I remember before the pain came."

"Has this happened before?"

"No."

"Maybe he's too weak for new eye tricks," Tobi commented. His voice and tone was unusually cold.

"Tobi, were you training with Itachi?" Sakura asked suspiciously.

"Yes." Sakura sighed. She then knelt down in front Itachi.

"Itachi, I'm going to try and help you, but you need to work with me here, got it?" Itachi nodded lightly. He then whispered,

"Make them leave."

"Everyone else, get out!" she shouted. "Tasano, can you bring me my medic book? It'll be the black one."

"Yes, of course." Two minutes later she had her medic book.

"Okay, Itachi, now sit up and remove your hands; I need to take a look at your eyes." Slowly, Itatchi sat up and removed his hands form his eyes. His eyes were bleeding from down inside this sockets, making it look like he was crying bloody tears. The area around the eyes and under them, including his fingers, was caked with crimson blood. Sakura mentally cringed. Normally, Sakura could deal with seeing blood; it just didn't affect her. But seeing it ooze out of someone's eyes? It wasn't normal and Sakura didn't like looking at it. "Okay, so you said you were out training you Sharingan?" she asked while skimming through her book about bleeding eyes.

"Yes."

"Was this a new trick, or is it something you've used before?"

"First time."

"Did you know a lot about this jutsu before attempting it?" There was a pause.

"….No," he whispered. Sakura looked up from the page she was on and gave the man before her a serious look.

"Who told you about his jutsu?" she asked quietly.

"That's none of your business," he retorted. Sakura could tell he was hiding something.

"Right; well, let's see if this helps at all." With her hands glowing green chakra, she placed her fingers gently over his eyes and flowed the chakra through them. The process took about a few minutes. "Okay, I suggest you not use your sharingan for a week or two; whatever trick you were trying to learn, it took a major toll on your eyes.—they were practically useless by the time I got here tonight, and it would've taken months to heal without my help.." Itachi glared at her accusingly.

"Haven't you forgotten already? It's like you said: I'm almost blind without my Sharingan," he spat at her. Sakura gave him a look all her own.

"Deactivate your Sharingan and tell me what happens." After a few seconds of mumbling (which Sakura found quit odd) Itachi deactivated his Sharingan. Once he did so, his eyes widened ever so slightly.

"I can see well." He slowly stood up and walked around the room, looking at every little thing around him.

"Everything looks different without your Sharingan, doesn't it?" He nodded in response. Sakura didn't understand why he was acting so strange. He turned his whole body and looked at the young woman. He stared intently at her, as if seeing something for the first time. But then again, in a way, he kind of was seeing her first the first time. From what Sasuke had once told her, when you use Sharingan, everything is red and heat is measured in colors, like the Byakugan, but that is blue. You can see no other real colors if sharingan is activated besides the red and the colors of heat. The only way he can tell who is who is by either the shape of their body or the chakra signature they give off.

Sakura, feeling nervous under the Uchiha's gaze, decided to break the awkward silence. "Okay, well, I'm going back to bed. Seriously, though, don't use your sharingan for a week or two and you will be just fine," she said. As Sakura headed toward the door, Itachi quickly spun her around and kissed her fiercely. She gasped from surprise and he took advantage of the moment by slipping his tongue inside her mouth. Sakura was shocked, to say the least; why would Itachi kiss her in the first place?

After recovering from her stupor, Sakura roughly shoved him away and bolted out the door and headed straight for her room. After thinking about what had just happened—again and again—, she came up with two conclusions: 1-she hated Itachi and wanted him dead; 2-she was possibly starting to fall for him. And what made the situation a whole lot worse was the fact that she didn't know what part of the conclusion was real and what part was make-believe.

* * *

**Yes! It's up! Kinda bugs that I have to make everything so spaced out so it isn't all bunched together and hard to read.**


	21. Tobi

**WARNING!! THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS CHAPTER FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T READ THE MANGA!!**

**YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!**

* * *

"So wait, he _kissed_ you, un?" Deidara asked slowly. He and Sakura were in his room, sitting on his bed. She was telling him about the previous night, seeking advice.

"Yes, he kissed me. What do I do?" she asked a little desperately. She was way to confused to figure it out on her own, and she couldn't find Hinata and she DEFINATELY couldn't talk about this with Sasuke.

"Well, maybe you should think about which guy is better for you. Personally, though, I would pick Tasano, un."

"Why?"

"Well, for one thing, HE'S YOUR AGE, where Itachi is like, 25 or something! Tasano seems nice enough; plus, it looks like he really cares about you. And besides ,now don't take this the wrong way or anything, but I thing Itachi only kissed you because he was a bit loopy from the accident that occurred during training, un," he reasoned. Sakura let out a sigh of frustration.

"I hope you're right, Deidara," she said. She got up and started walking towards the door. "Oh and another thing," she said, turning around, "thank you, you know, for letting me put all of this on you. I really appreciate it." The blonde gave her an embarrassed smile in response.

As Sakura walked through the pearl-white halls she noticed Hinata rushing towards her. As she came up to her she grabbed Sakura's wrist and dragged her to her room, locking the door behind them.

"Chyio, what is the meaning of this?!" Sakura shouted. Hinata quickly shushed her and motioned for Sakura to sit down across from her on the bed.

"I figured out who has the double identity in Akatsuki!" she whispered excitedly. Sakura, also excited, rushed over to the bed as well.

"Really? Well, who is it?" she asked anxiously. Hinata looked around cautiously just in case Zetsu might be around, and then she leaned forward and cupped her hands around Sakura's ear.

"Tobi!" Sakura's eyes widened to the size of saucers. There was just no way.

"Tobi? Are you sure? I mean, Tobi is just so….Tobi!" Hinata sighed.

"Yes, in know; but I am 100 sure about this, Tiashi. You have to believe me; is there anything there anything that would greatly confirm this theory?" Sakura thought to herself for a moment.

"You know what, now that you mention it, I just remembered something; when I went to see what was wrong with Itachi, for example! Of all people to be there, there was Tobi. He was the only one who was completely relaxed of all the people there—not even Leader or Tasano were as relaxed as he was. When I asked him, he said he was helping Itachi train his Sharingan. And then he said, 'maybe he's too weak for new eye tricks'. He sounded kind of cold, or disappointed, if you will. At the time I thought it so weird, but now it all makes sense!" There was a sudden knock on the door. Hinata got up off the bed and opened it. Zetsu was there.

"Chyio, would like to train with me? Everyone else seems to be busy with something else," he stated. Hinata looked back at Sakura, who gave her a nod. She followed Hinata out of her room and headed straight down for the kitchen to make herself some lunch. If there was one thing Sakura would never understand, it was how so many men could be living under one roof, and this place was so organized, let alone still _standing._ She wondered if Konan had anything to do with it—being the only girl before her and Hinata showed up. Sakura was still pondering this as she was eating her ham and cheese sandwich (A.N. crap, now I'm hungry!) when she felt a certain presence behind her.

"What is it, Itachi?" she asked in monotone; she didn't really care for what he had to say anyway so she didn't bother turning around to face. So instead, he walked around the table and sat down across from her.

"I wanted to talk to you about what happened last night," he said rather bluntly. Sakura inwardly snorted. '_He's probably going to say something stupid like, 'it never happened; I was delusional'!'_ "I wanted to know what you thought about it," he continued. Sakura started to choke on her own food, not expecting those words. Itachi was immediately behind her helping her out. Sakura shoved him off and took a deep breath.

"You were aggressive, I'll say that much," she answered, standing up. She walked over to the sink and put her dirty dishes in the sink, as she started to turn around so she could leave, Itachi put both of his hands on the countertop, trapping her between his muscular arms.

"Is that girl talk for, 'it was good', or what?"

"No, that's Tiashi talk for, 'I wasn't impressed'," she said while glaring up at him. She watched as a devious smirk slowly came to adorn his face.

"Well, if at first you don't succeed…" He didn't even bother finishing the over-used phrase: his mouth was already moving n hers, urging hers to move in sync with his. Sakura could down her back, going to her bra clasp.

Sakura quickly did some hand signs and opened her mouth wide, allowing toxic liquid to run into Itachi's mouth. He jumped back, screaming out loud in agony. Sakura stepped far out of his way as he rushed to the sink and tried spitting out the poison and rinsing his mouth out with cold water repeatedly. Within seconds others in the house had barged into the kitchen to see who had screamed. Before Sakura could blink, the eldest Uchiha had slammed her into the nearest wall, placing a sharp kunai to her neck. Sakura could actually feel her highlights turning into a sick black color—showing hatred.

"What did you do to me?" he whispered, venom seeping from his words (figuratively). His words came out a bit slurred because his tongue was swelling up.

"Well that's simple—I put a deadly poison in your mouth. That's what you get for kissing me and touching me!" He pressed the kunai deeper into her neck, spilling blood. "Face it, Itachi; I'm taken and you can't have me!" she whispered. Itachi shoved her forcefully to the ground and vanished in a cloud of smoke. Deidara and Sasuke came hurrying over to her.

"Tiashi, are you alright?! What happened, un?" Sakura was helped up by the two men. She huffed loudly.

"He kissed me; I spilled poison in his mouth," she answered. She brought her hand up to her neck and started healing the wound Itachi created. "You know what, I think I'm going to take some of my anger out on the trees; don't bother following," she informed while walking outside. Besides, she needed to physically prepare herself for the battle arriving soon.

* * *

**Next chapter out for you all! I was watching Psychic Kids-Children of the Paranormal today, and I came up with my next story. I have the first hcapter typed up and will post it soon. This is only a possible story so far.**


	22. Father

**(IN THE DREAM CHARM)**

Sakura sat down next to a riverside, waiting for Sasuke. Looking down at her reflection in the too-blue water, she smiled. For once, she was glad to see herself with pink hair on her head; it seemed to remind her that she was Sakura—not Tiashi, or anyone else for that matter. Sasuke came up from behind her and looked at her—their—reflection in the water. He was back in his spiky, chicken-butt, raven hair and his beautiful onyx eyes. In the water, here is what they saw: Sakura with Sasuke behind her, his head resting on her shoulder and his arms tied around her petite form. She also saw a small smile on Sasuke's face.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" she questioned curiously.

"Just thinking about what happened this afternoon, that's all." When she gave him an odd look, he continued. "I had asked for you to lap Itachi in the face, but shooting poison in his mouth works too! Very creative," he praised.

"Well, that's what's going to happen to a guy if he tries to kiss me!" she replied defiantly. Sasuke pulled her back further into his chest and placed his lips at the base of Sakura's neck.

"And what will happen if I kiss you, hmm?" he mumbled seductively into his skin. Sakura turned her head so that her lips were almost touching his.

"Well, I guess you'll have to try it to find out," she whispered. Sasuke placed his lips on Sakura's and moved them slowly and surely. Sakura turned around completely sat in his lap. Sasuke leaned back so sat Sakura was on top of him and held her to him, slipping his tongue inside her mouth. Sakura shivered.

It was a tongue war: spicy against sweet.

Sasuke flipped the two over deepened the kiss, then , following instincts, put his hand up her shirt.

* * *

Sakura woke up slowly, blinking in the bright sunlight. She really wished she were still in the dream; at least she could remember it—most of it, that is. She could easily recall his glorious kissing—that was clear. His hands roaming daringly over her body and hers over his. Everything after that was a bit of a blur. The only things that came to mind of what happened was heat, sweat, and her screaming out his name at some moments.—

Oh, god, they did it.

But what really surprised her was the fact she felt like she had actually done it with him outside the dream charm—in real life. Sakura brought her hand up to her neck and rubbed over the area Sasuke had marked—the hickies were there! She quickly checked the rest of her body—yep; she had all of his marks. Good thing her Akatsuki cloak covered almost her entire body. Sakura quickly sat up and got out of bed, but then quickly got back in. Apparently she had all the affects of having sex.

Wait a minute!! If all of these were showing up, then what if she was…

Forgetting about her pain, Sakura dashed out of bed, got dressed and went downstairs, grabbing a piece of toast on her way out the door, yelling "I'm going out, Chyio!" Sakura made her way to the nearest drugstore. She bought what she was looking for and charged back to the headquarters, hiding her purchased item under her cloak. Sakura ran to the bathroom connected to her bedroom and pulled out the pregnancy test and read the instructions.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Sakura checked the results for the fifth time—

POSITIVE

She couldn't believe it; she was pregnant. PREGNANT!! This wasn't good. Thisi _really_ wasn't good. She was going to be in the battle of a lifetime tomorrow! Well, first things first, go and blame the man responsible: the _father_. Sakura cringed at the word. She went downstairs and found Sasuke eating Sasuke with some of the other men. She stalked over to him.

"You, outside, NOW!!" Sasuke was about to say something, but then immediately obeyed after seeing the look on his face. They walked out far enough to where if someone screamed, no one would hear them. With ever step he took, Sasuke became more and more nervous. She turned to him sharply and punched hard enough to send him flying.

"What was that for?!" he screamed, confused.

"Do you have any idea what you've done? Well, do you?!" He didn't answer; he was scared. Sakura walked up to him and grabbed him by the collar and shoved into the nearest tree. Leaning in close, she put her mouth next to his ear. "Well, thanks to you, I have to go into battle tomorrow knowing that I'll be pregnant!" she seethed darkly. She leaned back and gave him an icy glare. After getting a look at Sasuke's face, Sakura was really confused. He looked shocked, to say the least.

"You're pregnant?" She nodded. "Because of me?" She nodded again, getting annoyed with his questions.

"Now, any last words before I pummel you to the ground?" Sasuke pushed them out a bit from the tree and kissed her fully on the mouth, pulled her back and pun her in the air in circles then brought her down and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I wasn't expecting this," he whispered. Sakura could feel him shaking.

"Sasuke, are you….crying?" she asked quietly. She pulled her head back and looked at him in the face. He was, indeed, crying. Sasuke brought his hands up and wiped away the tears, laughing slightly.

"I'm just….oh, I don't know! I can't remember the last time I felt this way!" he said. He touched his forehead to hers. "Thank you, for giving me such a gift…Sakura." Sakura laughed a little.

"Hey, calm down! It hasn't come yet!"

"No, but it will! I'm going to be a father!" he whispered. Sakura couldn't believe it. She had never seen Sasuke look so happy! Then a disturbing thought hit her.

"Um, Sasuke," she mumbled, "what if something happens. Or…I die…" she asked, not really wanting to see his reaction. He looked at her slowly, deep into her eyes. He took her face in his hands and tilted it up so that she had to look at him.

"That will not happen; I'm going to protect you with my life so you won't get hurt. Do you understand?" he asked slowly. Sakura nodded. He bent his head down and gave her a long, soft kiss on the lips. "Good; just promise me you won't think like that during the fight, okay?" he asked in a whisper.

"Okay." After a moment they headed back to the headquarters. On the way back Sasuke kept muttering, 'I'm going to be a father!'.

Although she didn't show it, Sakura was a bit upset. Sasuke kept on saying that he was going to be a father, not that they were going to b parents. So what did that mean? That he was going to let her have the child and then take it away from her and have it as all his own? What would he say when the child asked about their mother?

"You alright? You're highlights just turned kind of gray," Sasuke asked worriedly. Sakura looked at him and studied him for a moment for what seemed like eternity. Would Sasuke really be so selfish that he would take _their_ child and keep it all to himself? Sakura looked away and walked of in another direction; she also blocked out his voice calling out to her. Who's to know? Maybe after the battle and mission tomorrow, the fates will bring them together. But that would have to wait until _after_ the mission—if she had and after.

* * *

**Yeah, sorry about the confusion before! I hope you all get what happened now! I'll try not to let little things like that slip again.**

**Love yals!**


	23. Just a Dream

_**THE NEXT DAY...**_

The three spy ninja all sat at breakfast in a deadly silence. They had gotten orders from Shikamaru just last night. Sakura was to create a small vortex for the others to enter through to silently get into the Akatsuki Headquarters, and then they attack at noon. The battle itself: no one knew how long that would last or how it would go. Sakura couldn't help but feel, well, nervous. Not only were they going against the Akatsuki, but she would be going head to head with the man who took out her clan. At least she knew who she was. She looked at the others. Hinata seemed doing alright. Sasuke was—well, he was always emotionally controlled. But she imagined that he was going over every single jutsu he knew to take down Itachi with. Sakura looked at the clock on her left:

11:00; they had one hour left.

**58 MINUTES LATER...**

Now, everyone was already in Sakura's room, ready to charge and fight. The door ten opened.

"Tiashi, I was wondering if—" Itachi paused in sentence, taking a good look at all of the Leaf shinobi. "What's this?" he asked rather calmly. Ino released the disguise techniques off of Sakura, Sasuke, and Hinata, revealing their true form. Itachi glanced and Hinata, looked at Sasuke for a few seconds—who's eyes were filled with pure hatred—and stared and Sakura. A smirk came to his face and charged at the girl. Before he could get to her, Sasuke got in his way and the brothers were thrown back and crashed through the window. Everyone else sped off to start their own battles. Sakura went to find Tobi. After a few seconds of searching, she found him in a small room in the basement of the mansion, just sitting there.

"I've been waiting for you…..Sakura." He stood up, a kunai in hand, and was instantly behind her. "You'll come to find that I can go from one place to another in the speed of light?"

"Just like the Fourth Hokage," she realized.

"Exactly." He pulled the kunai back, beheading her. The body and head slowly turned into a pool of water, the real Sakura her opponent square in the back.

"You'll have to do better that that if you want to defeat me, _Madara__,"_ she said, drawling out his name.

* * *

"Foolish little brother; after all these years, you are still far behind me—you'll never catch up." Sasuke glared hard at Itachi's words.

If looks could kill…….

"I have surpassed you, Itachi!"

"Oh, you think so? Haven't you noticed yet, Sasuke, that I've not yet activated my Sharingan?" Sasuke mentally cursed. He was even using his...

Wait a minute!

_'He can't use his Sharingan! Just a few days ago, he screwed it up!'_ Sasuke smirked knowingly. "What?"

"Oh nothing, really; I'm just curious as to what will happen when you do activate you Sharingan." Itachi grunted. Closing his eyes, he tried to activate his Sharingan.

* * *

Neji looked down at the woman he had just killed. i_'One down, several to go,'__/i _he thought. He looked over to see Lee having trouble with a guy who looked a lot like the Grim Reaper. He ran over to make the fight two-one. Together they took down Hidan. Lee gave his teammate the good-guy pose.

* * *

"Thank you, Neji! Now in the power of youth, let us go and kick some Akatsuki butt!" he yelled, charging off. The Hyuga sweat dropped, but went to find another opponent anyway.Sakura jumped up, avoiding five kunai, landing on a table. "Was pretty sure I got all of the Haruno's; I guess I missed one," the Uchiha said casually. They were standing on opposite sides of the kitchen. Sakura bared her teeth, purposely making her fury known.

"You're going to pay for killing my family. Madara!" she growled. Madara (Tobi) maintained his calm composure. "Why did you kill them in the first place?" After a moment of silence, he answered her.

"I have my reasons, kid." He then made some hand signs that Sakura recognized all too well. "Fire-style! Fireball Jutsu!" he yelled. Sakura used a water barrier to block the flames and got down low to dodge the shuriken that were hidden in the flames. Before she could get up, Sakura felt herself being tied down with powerful chakra strings. She struggled to get out, but she couldn't break free. She looked up as she saw Madara walking towards her and kneeling down to her level and getting in her face. "Do you really want to know why I killed your kinsmen?"

* * *

Sasuke watched as Itachi closed his eyes to activate his sharingan. As he slowly opened his eyes, Itachi quickly closed them once more. Sasuke smirked.

"Don't tell me you've already forgotten; you screwed up your eyesight with that new jutsu, remember? Sasuke taunted. Itachi opened his eyes once more, Sharingan still activated.

"It doesn't matter; you're finished!" Itachi made some hand signs that Sasuke didn't recognize. Then black flames came shooting out of Itachi's mouth. Sasuke quickly hid himself away from the deadly flames, now knowing what the jutsu was. i_'__Amaterasu__!'/i _It was a kind of a fire jutsu that would burn everything in its path; it was a fire with no end_. _Sasuke watched the fire from his spot in a nearby tree that wasn't being eaten by the flames. Sasuke looked up at the sky, noticing black storm clouds. A smirk slowly came to his face, but it lessened when e felt metal against his neck. "I wouldn't be smirking if I were you, Sasuke; your end has come," Itachi said from behind. The younger Uchiha's smirk only widened. He poofed to a spot on the ground that the flames skipped over. From there he began to power up a full-body Chidori, feeling so much power come from the skies above.

* * *

Hinata watched another body fall to the ground. From where she was, she could see everyone except Sasuke and Sakura. Seeing a glint of silver in her peripheral vision, she caught the kunai aimed for her. There was a note attached to it.

_'It's time. Get everyone out!'_

"You know what, come to think of it, I really don't want to know your reasons. It's just the fact that you did." Quickly, Sakura performed the hand signs to a jutsu all her own—one that end the battle for good.

* * *

"CHIDORI!!" As if from a movie, a huge bolt of lightning, both from the sky and Sasuke, came shooting down onto Itachi. Sasuke could only watch it in slow motion as it came down. But as it did, his brother spoke to him.

"No matter what happens, you'll always be my precious little brother. Thank you, Sasuke." And then the lightning hit him, leaving a gaping hole in his chest. Sasuke could only stare at the sky in wonder. So all along, Itachi cared for him. Sasuke smiled, knowing that Itachi was never evil. He was going to find out everything he could about his brother—he had to. From the corner of his eye he saw everyone minus Sakura running his was. Naruto grabbed him by the arm and pulled Sasuke with the rest of the group.

"C'mon! We have to get out of here!" he yelled.

"Wait! What about Sakura, where is she?!" Sasuke never got an answer as h felt a violent shaking from beneath him. He, along with everyone else, stopped suddenly and turned around to look at the Akatsuki Headquarters. The stood in awe as they watched a large, dark purple swirling vortex sucking in the entire building they had just gotten out of and some area around it. It was so powerful that nearby trees were leaning in towards it all. As soon as it started, it ended. There was nothing left of Akatsuki.

"It was her final attack," Hinata whispered. "She told me about this plan a few days ago and to get everyone out so she could permanently end it all."

"So…where's Sakura?" Naruto choked out." Hinata could feel a tear rolling down her cheek.

"I-I don't know. When I asked her, she said……she said not to worry because……..she wasn't going to survive." By now, everyone had tears swelling up in their eyes.

"Why?" Sasuke whispered. He was fully aware of the cascade of tears rolling down his cheeks. "Why would she give up her life like that when there were alternative ways, when she knew what was going to happen is she survived…." Everyone turned towards Sasuke with questioning looks. "She was…..pregnant. And she knew it…." He trailed off, having a complete breakdown. Sasuke fell hard to his knees and held his head in his hands, emitting heart-wrenching sobs—something he hadn't done since he was seven. The others could only close their eyes in sadness, feeling just what he was.

* * *

_**Baby, why'd you leave me? **_

_**Why'd you have to go?**_

_**I was counting on forever, now I'll never know….**_

_**I can't even breathe**_

_**It's like I'm looking form a distance**_

_**Standing in the background**_

_**Everybody's saying you aint coming home now **_

_**This can't be happening to me…**_

_**This is just a dream……**_

* * *

**Two weeks later in some random country…**

In a peaceful meadow, there was a slight disturbance in the air. First small, but then growing larger by the second, was a spiraling vortex. A spot near the bottom of it rippled, and then a had reached out, grabbing a fist-full of dirt and pulling ot the rest of itself. Then the rest of the arms, a head and body. The vortex disappeared and the girl with long, pink hair lay on the ground panting. After catching her breath, she slowly and painfully got up and walked in a random direction in hopes of finding a town.

* * *

**For those of you who don't know, those were the lyrics to the song "Just a Dream" by Carrie Underwood. I felt it really fit for this chapter.**

**There are only two more chapters left. Sad, i know, but it will get me working on my two ther stories. One is Royal Blood, the other is one I just started, it is going to be called Paranoral Existance. Here is a basic description for it:**

_There are four girls, each with their own ability. They live in secret, but strive to help others like them. But what will happen when the people they've come to trust are the ones who are meant to destroy them?_

**Yeah, I don't want to say much without giving a lot away...I tend to do that a lot. Main characters are Sakura, Ino, Hinata, and TenTen.**

**Reviews make me smile!**

* * *


	24. A happy ending

**Yes, this is the last chapter ut there will be an epolouge (sp?) For those of you who were confused about the pregnant ssue, go back tothe chapter called "Father", and you will understand.**

* * *

"_If we could live with passion, maybe we would know some kid of peace; but we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered deck. Without passion, we'd be truly dead."_

_Angel, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'_

* * *

**7 months later…**

Sasuke lay in his bed, staring at his ceiling. Seven months. It's only been seven months, but to Sasuke, each day felt like eternity without her there by his side. He wasn't even going o try and find love again; there was no point, she was his only one. Sakura had always cared for him and loved him—even through his darkest days. She had given him a new light; a new reason to live; she had given him a new hope, and so he hoped against hope for everything. For her and for him, he hoped.

But now she's gone, so he found nothing to live for. He realized a few months back that if you don't have anyone to share your life and love with, than life is pointless. Without reason, there is no passion. Without passion, we are truly dead. Sasuke knew that now better than ever. He will know forever. There have been moments where the pain has been so great, that there have been thoughts—and attempts—of suicide. But someone was always there to stop. It was always Naruto, except for a few times where a voice in his head would say that things would get better—though Sasuke never believed it.

Sasuke turned his head and stared at the pills on his nightstand. One pill would knock him into a coma, and both pills would kill him instantly. He reached over and grabbed the pills and held them in his hand. After a small moment of hesitation, he brought his hand slowly to his mouth…

A knock on the door stopped him.

Sasuke set the pills down again and slowly made his way to the door and opened it.

"Tsunade wishes to see us," Naruto told him. The loner stepped out of his house and headed towards the tower with the blonde. Naruto studied Sasuke for a long moment.

"You were about to commit suicide." Even now, Sasuke was still shocked Naruto could understand him so well. He slowly nodded his head before hearing Naruto sigh. "Look, I miss her too, but this is—"

"You didn't love her the way I did," Sasuke whispered. Naruto kept silent the rest of the way there. He hated to admit it, but Sasuke was right. Naruto may have loved Sakura like a sister, but Sasuke found peace and happiness with Sakura. Naruto hated seeing his friend like this. He was utterly shocked when Sasuke had pulled himself together enough to make it to his and Hinata's wedding. Before they knew it, they were standing in front of Tsunade's door. They could hear shouting. Naruto opened the door to see that everyone that was on the mission was there, plus some of the senseis and Jiryah (sp?), all crowded around someone.

"Sakura?!" Naruto yelled. He ran forward and gave the young woman a huge friendly hug, careful to not hurt her swollen stomach. After a moment, he too, backed away, watching for the Uchiha's reaction. Sasuke stared at her, eyes wide.

"You-you're alive?" he managed in a whisper. Sakura nodded timidly, unconsciously putting a hand over her belly. Sasuke walked slowly towards her, still not completely believing his eyes. Once he stood in front of her, he stared at her. Sakura shifted her eyes away from his gaze, feeling nervous under it. Tsunade cleared her throat.

"You…uh…you are all dismissed," she said awkwardly, trying not to stare too much at Sasuke and Sakura. Everyone made their way back outside, each one repeatedly welcoming her back and saying how much they missed her and so on.

* * *

Sasuke and Sakura walked through the streets, people smiling at seeing the young girl. The villagers were never told what happened on the mission and never knew of Sakura's 'death'. They kept walking until they were at Sasuke's house and he let her in. "You can sit on the bid…if you'd like." Sakura did so, feeling slightly tired. It wasn't easy getting all the way back here while carrying someone inside of you. She looked around. It was just a small apartment; there wasn't much to it. She felt Sasuke sit down beside her. She looked on the nightstand and saw too pills. She new those kinds of pills. She picked them up in her hand and looked at them carefully, then looked at Sasuke.

"Sasuke, you weren't planning on taking these, were you?" she asked quietly. Sasuke stared at the pills for a moment and nodded slowly, eyes closing. He reopened them and stared at his feet.

"It's been hard without you," he whispered. Sakura took his hand in her small one and gave it a light squeeze.

"But suicide? Sasuke, have you lost your mind?" Said man raised her hand and held it against his cheek, linking their fingers.

"I thought I lost you," he answered, turning to face her. Sakura could see and feel the tears rolling down her cheeks. Sakura took her other hand and wiped the tears away, shifting her body to make it easier.

"I'm here now," she whispered. "Why would you do this?"

"I wanted to be with you, so I just…." His voice trailed off.

"To…be with me?" Sakura was confused.

"Sakura, I fell in love with you on that mission. About a week before the battle I had already decided to propose to you…" Sakura gasped. A week before…that was before they did it…so that means that he did care….she wasn't just his baby-maker.

"And I still love you," he finished. Sakura stared deep into his eyes. Sasuke stood up and went through one of the drawers in his nightstand and found a velvet blue box. "Good thing I didn't get rid of this," he mumbled. He stood in front of Sakura and got down on one knee. She could see he was nervous. "Okay, I'm no good at this, so bear with me. Sakura Haruno, will you marry me?" Sakura laughed slightly and then nodded.

"Yes!" She wrapped her arms around his neck as he stood up, bringing her with him. He pulled her close and kissed her on the lips for a few seconds. He slipped the diamond ring onto her finger.

"You must be exhausted." Sasuke helped her lie down on the bed. She had to lie down on her back because she was so far along in her pregnancy.

"Sasuke?" she whispered tiredly.

"Yes?"

"I love you." Sasuke smiled softly.

"I love you too."

**Okay, so I got a little lazy in the end. Tell me what you think!**


	25. Epologue

**18 YEARS LATER…**

**"**Mommy, we're home!" Sakura looked up from the medical book she was reading to see her and Sasuke's two youngest boys come in to the kitchen. Kenoshu, ten, and Kidoshi, seven. They were the only ones of all the children to still be going to the Academy.

"Hey, you two! Did you learn anything new today?" Sakura asked them. Kidoshi, being his usual happy self, answered first.

"Yeah! We got to learn about the first five Hokages! And then Lord Hokage came in and told us about what it's like for hism to be the hokage and said that anyone can be a great ninja, you just have to believe in yourself!" Sakura nodded, smiling. She almost knew Naruto would want to do something like that—being the 6th hokage, and all. She then turned towards Kenoshu.

"And you, Kenoshu? What did you do today?"

"We learned about the ninja hand sgns, like what they mean; stuff like that." Sakura smiled at the.

"That's good, you two. Can you do me a favor and go to the garden and get me a big basket of tomatoes? I'm going to make spaghetti tonight for dinner.

"Okay!" As they left the kitchen, Sakura got up and started to prepare the noodles and also got out some of the ingredients for the sauce. Then, the female triplets of the family walked into the kitchen. They were identical triplets with dark green eyes and pink hair, all fourteen years old. Their names were Tiashi, Mikoto, and Mitsuki. The first two were named after Sakura and Sasuke's mothers.

"Hey Mom, do you think you could quickly explain that battle formation you showed us one more time?" Sakura got a paper and pencil, drawing out the formation so the girls could understand it better. They thanked her for her help and went back to the training grounds behind the large house that Sasuke and Sakura had bought after their first was born. The woman got back to her cooking. But she was interrupted again, this time by a strong pair of arms making their way around Sakura's petite waist.

"Your mission was supposed to end nearly two weeks ago, Sasuke." Said man sighed and began kissing her neck. Out of habit, Sakura leaned her head to the side, giving him more room.

"I know; I'm sorry to have kept you waiting," he mumbled. Sakura turned around and put her arms around Sasuke's neck, hugging herself close to him. Sakura sighed and closed her eyes, happy to be in his arms again. She quickly gave him a peck on the lips. Sasuke smirked when she pulled back.

"It's like you _knew_ I would be back today." After giving him a confused look, he continued. "You're wearing my favorite flavor lip-gloss, Sakura. You _know_ what this kind does to me," he whispered.

"Sasuke, we already have _seven_ kids; I don't know if my body can handle it again!" Sasuke began to run her hands up and down the side of her body.

"That's what you said after we had Kenoshu."

"The only reason why Kidoshi is here is because of our drunk sex!" Sakura defended. Sasuke moved a little closer to her, their bodies fitting together in all of the right places to get Sakura's mind the tiniest bit clouded.

"Does that mean I have to get you drunk?" He didn't give her a chance to answer—his mouth was already moving against hers. It was slow and at moments his lips moved quickly, making her moan. She felt his tongue run along her bottom lip teasingly. After all these years, she still melted in ecstasy at what he could do with his lips and tongue. Sasuke pulled back, giving her a small pout—something he only did around his wife.

"So we can't do it anymore?"

"I didn't say we couldn't do it; I said I can't handle any more kids." Sasuke gave her his victorious smirk and then swooped down once again. He moaned out load when Sakura ran her fingers through his soft—and dirty—hair. It's really been far too long since Sasuke has felt her soft lips moving with his—

"Will you two get a room? We know what is going to come next, and it really shouldn't be done in the middle of the kitchen." The lovers broke apart to see their two oldest sons in the kitchen doorway. Roku was 17 ½ and Hebauki was 16.

"Seriously," Hebauki added, "most of us are still virgins; we don't need to see what you two do in your spare time." Sasuke slowly turned completely towards his sons, giving them a questioning glare.

"What do you mean, "most of us" are still virgins?" he asked slowly.

"Roku's been sleeping with the Hokage's daughter!" he shouted, running away. Roku, Sharingan now fully activated, sprinted after his brother.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!" he screamed, as they sprinted through the large house.

"Take it outside, not in the house!" Sakura shouted after them. "Wow," she said, chuckling. "Roku and Yumi. Think about it Sasuke; if they're serious about this, you and Naruto might very well become in-laws!" This comment made Sasuke's eye start to twitch. He then turned back to Sakura, an evil glint in his eye. Before she could run off, Sasuke quickly trapped her between his arms and the counter top. He leaned down and put his lips next to her ear.

"You do realize that I still have those bed chains and you still wear lacy pink panties; I think we both know what your punishment will be, Sa-ku-ra," he whispered hotly.

"Well, yeah…..if you can catch me!" she shouted, making a break for it. They ran all around the compound until he finally pinned her down.

"You can run, but I'll always catch you." He bent down and kissed her fully on the lips. He rolled them over so that she was on his chest, never breaking the kiss. Then Sakura pulled back.

"You know, there is another reason why probably shouldn't do it for a while," she said. Sasuke frowned slightly.

"And why is that?"

"Because I'm already pregnant again, you horny moron!" Sasuke started to laugh.

"I promise you, this will be the last one. Is it a boy or a girl?" he asked, secretly anxious (though Sakura knew he was excited).

"I went in yesterday and the doctor said it's a girl!"

"You're pregnant again?!" Sasuke and Sakura turned their heads to see all of their children in a group, looking astounded at the news. Sakura gave them all an awkward smile while getting up.

"Yes, I am." The eldest boys groaned out loud and the girls sighed while Kidoshi leaped for joy.

"Yay!! I get a baby sister!" While the older five walked off, mumbling about having to deal with more diapers, Kenoshu ran after them, confused.

"Wait, is getting a baby sister a _bad_ thing? You guys?! Wait!" he shouted. Sakura laughed softly at their reactions. Sasuke came up beside her and sighed.

"We're going to have another baby in the family," he said. Sakura could only nod as her husband put his arms around her once more (and would many more times after).

"I love you," she heard. As he said that, Sasuke wove their fingers together. Walking hand in hand, they walked back to _their_ home, and to _their_ family.

**THE END**

**Yes, this is the end. Now I will work more on my other two stories, Royal Blood and Paranormal Existance. For those of you who don't get the whole,"bed chains and pink underwear" bit, please don't ask about it... a friend of mine tried to make me explain it (though she already knew) and I just got really red in the face.**


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